The relationship of septicemia-related diagnoses and positive blood cultures

In order to determine the relationship of blood culture results and septicemia-related diagnoses, laboratory and patient chart records were evaluated on 25 intensive care unit patients who were hospitalized in 1989. Overall, there were 14 in whom the DRG and blood culture results were both positive, 4 with positive DRGs and negative blood cultures, and 7 with negative DRGs and positive blood cultures. These findings suggest that neither positive blood culture results nor diagnosis codes are entirely accurate indicators of the overall incidence of septicemia, and that the two indicators were not closely associated in our hospital.