Optimization Of The Blood Culture Pathway: A Template For Improved Sepsis, Management And Diagnostic Antimicrobial Stewardship.

Abstract

Laboratory processing of blood cultures has remained static over the past 30 years despite increasing antibiotic resistance and advances in analyser design. By siting our blood culture analyser in the Blood Sciences laboratory and optimizing the pre-analytical and analytic phases of blood culture management we reduced the time taken to detect most blood culture isolates to <12 hours. 50% of positive blood cultures containing Escherichia coli were definitively reported with antibiotic susceptibilities in <24 hours. >85% of blood cultures positive for E. coli had antibiotic susceptibilities reported within 36 hours of collection, compared with 66 hours at a comparator hospital.