Impact of a blood culture collection kit on the quality of blood culture sampling: fear and the law of unintended consequences.

摘要

Blood culture is a vital investigation and can be the first step in obtaining a definitive diagnosis in a patient with presumed sepsis, but can also have serious adverse consequences for the patient. The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent of the blood culture contamination problem at the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals (LTH) and to assess the impact of the introduction of a new blood culture collection kit on the contamination rate. Blood culture contamination rate at the LTH before the introduction of the blood culture collection kit was 9.2%. A fall in contamination rate was observed after kit introduction, to 3.8%, a proportion approaching the American Society of Microbiologists' recommended standard of