{"id":39,"date":"2019-09-14T21:18:16","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T21:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deepdive.tips\/?p=39"},"modified":"2019-12-27T18:10:55","modified_gmt":"2019-12-27T18:10:55","slug":"shining-a-light-on-c-diff-christian-john-lillis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/index.php\/2019\/09\/14\/shining-a-light-on-c-diff-christian-john-lillis\/","title":{"rendered":"Shining a Light on C. diff \u2013 Christian John Lillis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/11325059\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/backward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/30455c\/\" height=\"90\" width=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"\" mozallowfullscreen=\"\" oallowfullscreen=\"\" msallowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Shining a Light on <em>C. diff<\/em><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Clostridium difficile<\/em> (klos-TRID-e-um dif-uh-SEEL), often called <em>C. difficile<\/em> or <em>C. diff <\/em>impacts 453,000 people every year. And with 29,000 associated&nbsp;deaths, it takes more&nbsp;lives than AIDS and drunk-driving combined. Yet, most people have never even heard of it. That\u2019s a big problem because you can\u2019t protect yourself from a threat when you don\u2019t even know it exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The impact on the business of healthcare is significant too. A&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ajicjournal.org\/article\/S0196-6553(15)00664-1\/abstract\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">study<\/a>&nbsp;published in the&nbsp;American Journal of Infection Control found that C. diff-associated diarrhea (CDAD) increases hospital costs by 40% per case (an average of $7,285 ) and puts those infected at high risk for longer hospital stays and readmissions. &nbsp;Some even believe those&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthleadersmedia.com\/quality\/c-diff-infection-raises-hospital-costs-40-case#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">numbers are likely&nbsp;underestimated<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>C. diff<\/em> presents us with an interesting problem at the cross-section of&nbsp;Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC). It\u2019s an environmental bacterium that\u2019s found pretty much everywhere and is difficult to kill, but it\u2019s usually&nbsp;held in check by the good bacteria in our&nbsp;bodies. The problem usually&nbsp;occurs when a patient is in a weakened&nbsp;state from some other healthcare intervention. That may be an antibiotic treatment for another healthcare-associated infection or chemotherapy, etc. With our bodies in a weakened&nbsp;state and our good bacteria depleted by antibiotics, we become susceptible to C. diff. So, it\u2019s important that we avoid unnecessary&nbsp;antibiotics and execute on all the other IPAC practices like proper hand hygiene and surface cleaning in the hospital so that, as our guest puts it, we can disrupt the chain of events that allow to C. diff to proliferate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This episode originally aired on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehcbiz.com\/shining-a-light-on-c-diff-christian-john-lillis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">The #HCBiz Show! on April 26th, 2017<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Episode 003:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>On this episode, we\u2019re joined by the co-founder and Executive&nbsp;Director of the Peggy Lillis Foundation (PLF), Christian John Lillis. &nbsp;Like so many people who\u2019ve dedicated their lives to driving change in the healthcare industry, Christian has a very powerful \u201cwhy\u201d. He lost his mother to&nbsp;a clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection in April 2010. After struggling with the fact that he lost his mother to a disease he never heard of, and later finding out that it impacts so many people, Christian, along with his brother Liam, founded PLF and are building a nationwide C. diff awareness movement by educating the public, empowering advocates and shaping policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christian gives us a deep and personal take on his family\u2019s experience with C. Diff and the work that the Peggy Lillis Foundation is doing to help. We discuss:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>What is clostridium difficile (<em>C. diff<\/em>)?<\/li><li>Is C. diff a Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI) or something else?<\/li><li>How important are hand hygiene and environmental cleaning in preventing the spread of <em>C.&nbsp;diff<\/em>?<\/li><li>Why haven\u2019t more people heard of<em> C. diff<\/em>?<\/li><li>Why is it so hard to measure the true impact of C. diff on our health system? How do we fix that?<\/li><li>Why do only some states require reporting on outbreaks? How does that affect the business of healthcare? How does it affect the patients?<\/li><li>What is the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/open\/prevention\/\" target=\"_blank\">Prevention and Public Health Fund<\/a>? Why is it under fire and what is the impact to the CDC, states and beyond?<\/li><li>What is the financial impact of C. diff?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Christian\u2019s story is powerful and it\u2019s full of wisdom that can help patients, families, and providers. In our quest to unravel the business of healthcare, it\u2019s important to understand the people we serve and how our work impacts their lives. This is a crash course and I hope it touches you as it did me. Enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>~Don Lee<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About&nbsp;Christian John Lillis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/about.me\/christian_lillis\" target=\"_blank\">Christian John Lillis<\/a>&nbsp;is executive director of&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.peggyfoundation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Peggy Lillis Foundation<\/a>&nbsp;(PLF), which he co-founded with his brother, Liam, following the death of their mother from a clostridium difficile (<em>C. diff<\/em>) infection in April 2010. PLF is building a nationwide C. diff awareness movement by educating the public, empowering advocates and shaping policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was previously managing director of prospect strategy &amp; research at Teach For America. With more than 15 years\u2019 experience as a frontline fundraiser and behind-the-scenes strategist for healthcare, LGBT rights, and education organizations, he led prospect identification and research programs that increased resource development both nationally and regionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prior to joining Teach For American in November 2009, Christian served in a variety of roles for a diverse group of nonprofits, including as Director of Development for In The Life Media, Director of Major Gifts for the National LGBTQ Task Force, and Associate Director of Development Research for NYU Langone Medical Center. Throughout his career, Christian has been a frequent speaker at conferences including the Mid-Atlantic Researchers Conference and Creating Change: The National Conference on LGBT Equality. He was also a contributor to Prospect Research: A Primer for Growing Nonprofits by Cecilia Hogan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christian is an adviser to the Patient Voice Institute and Gulf Coast C. diff Collaborative, as well as a member of Consumers Union Safe Patient Project and Chicago Area Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is a former member of the board of directors of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York and the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA) of Greater New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christian began his fundraising career at Lambda Legal Defense &amp; Education Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He holds a B.A. in Political Theory from Brooklyn College, where he served as a term as President of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Alliance and won The Donald G. Whiteside Poetry Award his senior year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christian is a native of Brooklyn, New York. He currently lives in Park Slope with his husband, Chris Young, and their rescued \u201cbeagle baby\u201d, April. His hobbies include Tae Kwon Do (he is a black belt), Zumba, reading comic books and JD Robb\u2019s \u201cIn Death\u201d series, and poetry writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About the Peggy Lillis Foundation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Mission: The Peggy Lillis Foundation is building a nationwide clostridium difficile awareness movement by educating the public, empowering advocates, and shaping policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vision: We envision a world where C. diff is rare, treatable and survivable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/peggyfoundation.org\/event\/2017-national-c-diff-summit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2017 C. diff Summit &amp; National Strategy Meeting<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Facebook:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PeggyFoundation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PeggyFoundation\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Twitter:&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PeggyFund\" target=\"_blank\">@PeggyFund<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Listen wherever you get your podcasts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/TIPSDeepDive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"80\" src=\"http:\/\/deepdive.tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Listen-on-Apple-Podcasts-Badge-300x80.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-60\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/TIPSonGooglePodcasts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"76\" src=\"http:\/\/deepdive.tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/google_podcasts_badge@8x.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-59\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/TIPSonStitcher\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/deepdive.tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Button-Stitcher-Shine.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-62\" width=\"301\" height=\"91\" srcset=\"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Button-Stitcher-Shine.png 558w, https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Button-Stitcher-Shine-300x90.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 301px) 100vw, 301px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/TIPSonSpotify\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/deepdive.tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/spotify-1024x307.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-61\" width=\"302\" height=\"90\" srcset=\"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/spotify-1024x307.png 1024w, https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/spotify-300x90.png 300w, https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/spotify-768x230.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 302px) 100vw, 302px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>or, listen right here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/11325059\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/backward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/30455c\/\" height=\"90\" width=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"\" mozallowfullscreen=\"\" oallowfullscreen=\"\" msallowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mentioned on the show:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/investigates\/section\/usa-uncounted\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Uncounted<\/a>: The deadly epidemic America is ignoring. A Reuters report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/034580273X\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=034580273X&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=hcbiz-20&amp;linkId=94518cdc3551058ce118ed453c4beef2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Catastrophic Care: Why Everything We Think We Know about Health Care Is Wrong<\/a>: One of my favorite books on healthcare. Be prepared to be jarred and probably angry, but more aware of what\u2019s going on in the business of healthcare. Also, a good listen on Audible&nbsp;at 1.25 speed \u2013 grab an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00NB86OYE\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00NB86OYE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=hcbiz-20&amp;linkId=fe72b000c0684c9d6fa8dc671c15af5d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Audible Membership<\/a>&nbsp;and check it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamainternalmedicine\/article-abstract\/2610103\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Patient Mortality During Unannounced Accreditation Surveys at US Hospitals<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clostridium difficile (klos-TRID-e-um dif-uh-SEEL), often called C. difficile or C. diff impacts 453,000 people every year. And with 29,000 associated deaths, it takes more lives than AIDS and drunk-driving combined. Yet, most people have never even heard of it. That\u2019s a big problem because you can\u2019t protect yourself from a threat when you don\u2019t even know it exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diseases-conditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepdive.tips\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}