CDI Patient Mortality Pathways

"There is no viable system that is available or followed that enables healthcare providers to predict upon diagnosis whether a patient with Clostridium difficile (C.diff or CDI) infection is at a higher risk of mortality and would need advanced treatment at an earlier stage. Research has shown that most patients that die after diagnosis of CDI are highly probable to do so within 30 days of their infection diagnosis. This study tries to identify patterns patients experience that indicate their risk of mortality after contraction of CDI. It investigates the presence of a correlation between patients that die within 30 days of their CDI diagnosis and other combinations of attributes [pathways] they possess. In this context, the term pathway denotes the accumulated effect of all attributes on a patient by patient basis. Using CDI diagnosed patients’ attributes, pathways of CDI patients that died within 30 days of infection diagnosis were compared against pathways of non-CDI patients that died after possessing other comorbidities on the Charlson Comorbidity Scoring Index. Outcomes include observation of particular patterns within the pathways CDI patients that died within 30 days of infection diagnosis take that is not found within pathways of non-CDI patients that died after having had other comorbidities. Understanding this pattern of patient attributes may help healthcare providers flag future CDI patients for high risk of mortality in the case patients exhibit similar pathway patterns, resulting in effective treatment methods at initial stages and reduced instances of mortality after CDI."