Laboratory Testing, Diagnostic Coding, and Treatment for Electronic Identification of Clostridioides difficile Infection

Abstract

Background: Accurate identification of Clostridioides difficile infections (CDIs) from electronic data sources is important for surveillance. We evaluated how frequently laboratory findings were supported by diagnostic coding and treatment data in the electronic health record. Methods: We analyzed a retrospective cohort of patients in the Veterans’ Affairs Health System from 2006 through 2016. A CDI event was defined as a positive laboratory test for C. difficile toxin or toxin genes in the inpatient, outpatient, or long-term care setting with no prior positive test in the preceding 14 days. Events were classified as incident (no CDI in the prior 56 days), or recurrent (CDI in the prior 56 days) and were evaluated for evidence of clinical diagnosis based on International Classification of Disease, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) and ICD-10-CM codes and at least 1 dose of an anti-CDI agent (intravenous or oral metronidazole, fidaxomicin, or oral vancomycin). We further assessed the possibility of treatment without testing by quantifying positive laboratory tests and diagnostic codes among inpatients receiving an anti-CDI agent. A course of anti-CDI therapy was defined as continuous treatment with the same drug. Results: Among 119,063 incident and recurrent CDI events, 70,114 (58.9%) had a diagnosis code and 15,850 (13.3%) had no accompanying treatment. The proportion of patients with ICD codes was highest among patients treated with fidaxomicin (82.6% of 906) or oral vancomycin (74.3% of 30,777) and was lower among patients receiving metronidazole (63.3% of 103,231) and those without treatment (29.9% of 15,850). The proportion of events with ICD codes and treatment was similar between incident and recurrent episodes. During the study period, there were ~470,000 inpatient courses of metronidazole, fidaxomicin, and oral vancomycin. Table 1 shows the presence of ICD codes and positive laboratory tests by anti-CDI agents. Among 51,100 courses of oral vancomycin, 51% had an ICD code and 44% had a positive test for C. difficile within 7 days of treatment initiation. Among 1,013 courses of fidaxomicin, 79% had an ICD code and 56% had a positive laboratory test. Conclusions: In this large cohort, there was evidence of substantial CDI treatment without confirmatory C. difficile testing and, to a lesser extent, some positive tests without accompanying treatment or coding. A combination of data sources may be needed to more accurately identify CDI from electronic health records for surveillance purposes.

Funding: None

Disclosures: None