While I believe your story was informative and balanced, there is at least one part that may be misleading to your readers. While it is factual that 8 WLMH patients died during the 15-month time period quoted and these patients did have C-difficile at some point in their stay, our review indicates that in 2 of these cases C-difficile caused the patient's death, in one patient C-difficile was a major contributor to the death and in the remainder C-difficile played a more minor role or none at all.

Even one preventable death is a major cause for concern for all of us at WLMH. We have been and will continue to be vigilant in combatting this terrible and devastating disease, including how antibiotics are prescribed, implementing and maintaining strict cleaning standards, conducting handwashing audits and any other measures that are necessary to take.

Our hearts and prayers go out to all C-difficile survivors and the loved ones of those who have been affected.

And while we know that our current C-difficile infection rate is well below the provincial benchmark, all of us in hospital have a role to play in strengthening our infection control programs to keep patients, visitors and staff safe. It's one of our main priorities.

David Bird, CEO, West Lincoln Memorial Hospital