A new study reported on by MedPage Today reveals that most patients treated with antibiotics for Clostridium Difficile (C. diff) did not actually have the infection, according to research presented at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

The study shows that lab results confirmed only 292 patients of the 1,971 patients treated for C. diff infection at a 240-bed hospital from February 2012 through November 2013 actually had the infection.

All the patients were inpatients for three days and treated with vancomycin or metronidazole in IV or oral form.

Fewer than one in six patients treated with powerful antibiotics for aClostridium Difficile (C. Diff) infection actually had lab-confirmed infections! This is truly astonishing considering that a lab test for C. Diff is a very common and inexpensive test, which can save tens of thousands of dollars in hospitalizations costs and negative outcomes of unnecessary treatments.