Blood Culture Collection Teams Reduce Contamination Rates and Reduce Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infections

Abstract

<h3>Background</h3> Blood culture contaminations increase hospital costs and generate inappropriate identification of central line-associated blood stream infections. A 300+ bed hospital in the Midwest had contamination rates higher than the national average of < 2% and 68% percent of the central line-associated blood stream infections that occurred were related to blood culture contaminations. Trial objectives are to review evidence-based practice related to blood culture collection practices, create a specialized team to collect blood cultures, and monitor the blood culture contamination rates as well as central line-associated blood stream infections. <h3>Methods</h3> Blood culture team members were educated from July 2018 through December 2018 and initiation began January 2019. Infection Prevention reviewed contaminations and shared opportunities for improvement. During the trial period, directors focused on central line removal and the blood culture team was not consistently utilized potentially impacting the study outcome. The facility's goal was to reduce contaminations and central line-associated blood stream infections. Chi-Square test of independence was performed to examine the relation between blood culture team and the ability to reduce contaminations (p-value < .05). Correlation coefficient was calculated to determine correlation between blood culture contaminations and central line-associated blood stream infections. <h3>Results</h3> When comparing the nonintervention period (January 2017-October 2017) to the study period (January 2019-October 2019), blood culture contaminations were reduced by 81 contaminations. The relation between these variables was significant, X2 (1, N=13867) = 24.55, p < .001. Central line-associated blood stream infections were reduced by 11. Number of contaminations and central line-associated blood stream infections were found to be moderately positively correlated, r (32), p = .034. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Blood culture collection teams significantly reduce blood culture contamination rates (p < .001) as well as central line-associated blood stream infections (p = .034). Reducing contamination rates reduced hospital costs and improved quality of care.