The issue I have chosen for this change project is improving blood culture contamination rates within the emergency department (ED) at Erlanger Hospital. This issue is one suggested by the Erlanger ED manager, as it is a persistent issue for this department, and is consequently in need of new evidence-based initiatives and education for healthcare personnel.
Blood culture testing is a routinely utilized intervention used to diagnose infections in symptomatic patients who arrive at the ED (Denno & Gannon, 2013). Blood cultures are essential as they help identify accurate pathogens and provide targeted antibiotic therapy (Denno & Gannon, 2013). They are often viewed as the standard for diagnosing septicemia and other illnesses necessitating rapid treatment protocols in the ED. Contaminated blood cultures adversely affect patient health and can result in incorrect diagnosis, delayed treatment, and increased risk of morbidity (Denno & Gannon, 2013). Furthermore, they affect healthcare organizations as a whole by potentially resulting in increased resource consumption and costs of care (Denno & Gannon, 2013). …show more content…
Often a result of personnel being in rapid-response mode, seemingly simple tasks such collecting blood cultures are overlooked and healthcare personnel collect without thinking of possible contamination or adhering to proper prevention measures. EDs in most hospitals generally have a higher rate of BC contamination as compared to inpatient care (Harding & Bollinger, 2012). Through implementation of evidence-based quality improvement interventions reductions have been evidenced in EDs to below 2% (Harding & Bollinger, 2012). This is the currently the goal set for the Erlanger ED and what we will be striving to achieve in the coming
Blood culture testing is a routinely utilized intervention used to diagnose infections in symptomatic patients who arrive at the ED (Denno & Gannon, 2013). Blood cultures are essential as they help identify accurate pathogens and provide targeted antibiotic therapy (Denno & Gannon, 2013). They are often viewed as the standard for diagnosing septicemia and other illnesses necessitating rapid treatment protocols in the ED. Contaminated blood cultures adversely affect patient health and can result in incorrect diagnosis, delayed treatment, and increased risk of morbidity (Denno & Gannon, 2013). Furthermore, they affect healthcare organizations as a whole by potentially resulting in increased resource consumption and costs of care (Denno & Gannon, 2013). …show more content…
Often a result of personnel being in rapid-response mode, seemingly simple tasks such collecting blood cultures are overlooked and healthcare personnel collect without thinking of possible contamination or adhering to proper prevention measures. EDs in most hospitals generally have a higher rate of BC contamination as compared to inpatient care (Harding & Bollinger, 2012). Through implementation of evidence-based quality improvement interventions reductions have been evidenced in EDs to below 2% (Harding & Bollinger, 2012). This is the currently the goal set for the Erlanger ED and what we will be striving to achieve in the coming