In primary hospitals without their own microbiology departments, this diagnostic procedure could take two or three days.
During this period, the isolation of the patient leads to a lack of availability of the adjacent beds for other patients and to higher costs of patient care through the necessity of wearing coats, masks, caps and gloves to avoid transferring bacteria to other patients.
These additional costs and the discomfort for patients, relatives and staff members could be avoided by a more rapid diagnostic procedure and by the prevention of AAD and CDAD[4].
Data from surveys and our own observations suggest that isolated patients are visited less frequently and consequently are treated worse than non-isolated patients[5-7].