Blood Culture - An organisation’s journey to patient safety

1. Early Appropriate Antibiotic Therapy Saves Lives in Sepsis.
2. Blood culture (BC) is the gold standard reference method for diagnosis of sepsis and for ensuring adequate antibiotic treatment of sepsis however; BC is not just for sepsis: Identification of a pathogen from a positive BC helps prevent development of sepsis in a clinically stable patient by guiding effective treatment and control of focus of infection.
3. BC promotes antimicrobial stewardship through targeted antimicrobial therapy in patients with positive BCs and de-escalation or discontinuation of antibiotics in those with negative BCs.
4. Optimisation of pre-analytic phase of BC pathway; from collection at the bedside to incubation of BC into the analyser, is critical for pathogen detection and impacts on the BC positivity rate.
5. Adequate volume of blood should be sampled prior to initiation of antimicrobial therapy and BCs should be promptly incubated.

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