FRIDAY, Oct. 30 (HealthDay News) -- At a tertiary-care hospital, implementation of an electronic medical record with a computerized physician order entry led to reductions in antimicrobial use and the rate of Clostridium difficile infection, according to research presented this week at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, held from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 in Philadelphia.

Paul P. Cook, M.D., of East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., and colleagues analyzed the periods before and after the Pitt County Memorial Hospital implemented the electronic medical record system in July 2007.

The researchers found that overall antimicrobial use declined by 18 percent, and observed the largest reductions in the use of quinolone and clindamycin (56.8 and 48.3 percent, respectively). They also found that the rate of C. difficile infection declined by 26.2 percent.

"The use of an electronic medical record and computerized physician order entry that incorporates clinical decision support is recommended by the Infectious Diseases Society of America as a means of promoting judicious antimicrobial use," the authors write.

Several study authors reported financial relationships with various pharmaceutical companies.

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