C. difficile Canine Scent Detection at Vancouver Coastal Health

A multi-disciplinary team at Vancouver General Hospital has developed a program that trains dogs to detect C. difficile with high accuracy. Since its inception in 2016, our canine detection teams have successfully searched hundreds of hospital areas for C. difficile. Each contamination alert is acted upon immediately and used as an opportunity for in-the-moment education for healthcare workers, cleaning staff and patients. Alert data is also used to design & implement targeted quality improvement initiatives.