Background: Antibiotics targeted against C. difficile bacteria are necessary, but insufficient, to achieve a durable clinical response because they have no effect on C. difficile spores that germinate within a disrupted microbiome. ECOSPOR-III evaluated SER-109, an investigational, biologically-derived microbiome therapeutic of purified Firmicute spores for treatment of recurrent CDI. Methods: Adults ≥18 years with recurrent [...]

Background: Patients admitted to New Hanover Regional Medical Center with a history of opiate use disorder (OUD) and serious infections require a median length of stay (LOS) of 33 days and discharge against medical advice (AMA) 26% of the time, resulting in quality and safety gaps which includes incomplete treatment, readmissions, and high cost of [...]

Background: Orbital cellulitis/abscess (OC) is an infection of eye tissues posterior to the orbital septum. OC can have significant morbidities such as vision loss, cavernous sinus thrombosis, and intracranial infection if treatment is not initiated promptly. While some patients with orbital cellulitis complicated by subperiosteal abscess require surgical drainage, many are managed with intravenous (IV) [...]

Background: Current data indicate that racial and ethnic minorities bear a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 infection and mortality (1-4). Consequently, communities with a higher proportion of minorities are expected to have a higher burden of infection and mortality, however, this hypothesis has not been tested. Therefore, we estimated the disparities across US counties in the [...]

Background: Studies indicate that physicians do not clean their stethoscopes regularly, and stethoscope surfaces become contaminated with bacteria. Neither the frequency with which stethoscopes deserve cleaning nor simple, practical cleaning approaches have been well-established for hospitalists or other inpatient clinicians. Our aim was to determine bacterial contamination of stethoscopes directly from a hospital doctor’s white [...]

Background: The management of cellulitis in young infants has not been well-studied and appears to be largely variable. Infants with cellulitis often present without fever and only skin findings, with only a small minority having invasive infection. There is no consensus on the need for admission and further workup, such as a lumbar puncture. The [...]

Background: Infants ≤ 60 days of age with a urinary tract infection (UTI) are a challenging population. Without clear guidelines for management, there is variability in renal imaging and antibiotic use. Our study examined patterns of renal imaging and antibiotic use in infants ≤ 60 days of age with UTI at a tertiary care children’s [...]

Background: Proper hand hygiene is a cornerstone of infection control [1,2]. Despite this, compliance remains a challenge, averaging only 50% across healthcare systems nationwide [1].Several interventions have been trialed to improve compliance, including audit and feedback [3]. Traditionally, hand hygiene audits have occurred through direct observation. Unfortunately, this approach can capture fewer than 1-3% of [...]

Case Presentation: A 71-year-old man presented with pus from the umbilicus. Past medical history was pertinent for persistent urinary tract infection for a month, complicated by feculent urine and pneumaturia despite two rounds of antibiotics, and 20-lb weight loss. He was found to have purulent drainage from the umbilicus. Lower abdomen was tender without rebound [...]

Case Presentation: A 61-year-old male with a past medical history of pancreatic and renal transplants on chronic immunosuppression presented with a six-day history of watery diarrhea. He also reported fever, abdominal pain, and noted a family member also developed a similar diarrhea after a pork dinner. His vital signs were remarkable for fever (101.8 F) [...]