Do blood contamination reduction devices work? A single institution comparison.

Area of Science:

• Clinical Microbiology
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Devices

Background:

• Blood culture contamination is a persistent issue in clinical microbiology.
• Contaminated blood cultures can lead to unnecessary antibiotic use and prolonged hospital stays.
• Initial specimen diversion devices aim to mitigate contamination during blood collection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of two initial specimen diversion devices in reducing blood culture contamination rates.
• To assess the utility of these devices in achieving contamination rates at or below 1%.

Main Methods:

• A 3-month trial comparing two distinct initial specimen diversion devices.
• Monitoring of overall and device-specific blood culture contamination rates.
• Analysis of device usage to understand adoption and impact.

Main Results:

• Overall contamination rates were 2.46% and 2.60% during the trial periods.
• Device-specific contamination rates were significantly lower at 0.68% and 0.8%.
• Low overall usage of the devices was noted during the evaluation.

Conclusions:

• Initial specimen diversion devices show promise in reducing contamination at the device level.
• Further strategies are needed to increase device adoption and improve overall contamination rates.
• These devices may offer a valuable tool for enhancing the accuracy of blood cultures.