Blood Culture Contamination For the purpose of this research, Archbold Medical Center Laboratory is the place I chose to conduct my research. Blood Culture contamination is a big problem not only at Archbold, but at many hospitals. The problem is not only within the laboratory, but from outside sources also. Although contamination is a problem, it can be easily fixed. Whenever a blood culture is ordered by a physician, we can assume the patient is experiencing some type of bacterial infection in the bloodstream. Cultures are done to detect an infection that is happening and from there it can be narrowed down to a specific cause and appropriate treatment can be given. When collecting a sample, the nurse or phlebotomist will collect two sets.
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I put together the contamination rates that were taken over a month and presented them to the phlebotomist and the ER Nurses/phlebotomist. I made them aware that the desired goal is to be 3% and under. The information I provided was from a presentation by Peter H. Gilligan called “How to get your blood culture contamination rates to <1% is an outstanding goal to reach and is definitely possible with the right staff and training. A culture is considered to likely be contaminated when a single positive culture from multiple sets is positive. Organisms that are considered to be contaminants are coagulase negative staphylococcus, Corynebacterium (except C. jeikium), Bacillus spp., P.acnes, viridian streptococci, and clostridium perfringens. There are many factors that come into play when preventing blood culture contamination. Proper skin preparation, culture bottle preparation, single vs. double needles, percutaneous venipuncture vs. vascular catheters, commercial blood culture collections kits, and even the phlebotomy team are important factors to consider. Unlike normally just using alcohol, skin should be disinfected with iodine and a mixture of isopropyl alcohol. The site should be allowed to dry without touch anything else. Disinfecting the blood culture bottles have shown to have lower contamination rates. Also, contamination is “2 to 5 times …show more content…
The problem seems to all come down to following proper procedures correctly and having the appropriate knowledge. The problem in Archbold is majority coming from the ER which is understandable because they do not get as much practice. As with everything, practice makes perfect. Archbold has a phlebotomist in the ER but only one. There is no way she can cover it all, so other nurses take the draws sometimes. Providing a phlebotomist in the ER is very cost efficient. Having procedure manuals available to nurses to review when they feel the need to will help provide them with knowledge. Reducing contamination will solve problems within the hospital and especially for the patients. Appropriate care can be provided with confidence that the results are the
I put together the contamination rates that were taken over a month and presented them to the phlebotomist and the ER Nurses/phlebotomist. I made them aware that the desired goal is to be 3% and under. The information I provided was from a presentation by Peter H. Gilligan called “How to get your blood culture contamination rates to <1% is an outstanding goal to reach and is definitely possible with the right staff and training. A culture is considered to likely be contaminated when a single positive culture from multiple sets is positive. Organisms that are considered to be contaminants are coagulase negative staphylococcus, Corynebacterium (except C. jeikium), Bacillus spp., P.acnes, viridian streptococci, and clostridium perfringens. There are many factors that come into play when preventing blood culture contamination. Proper skin preparation, culture bottle preparation, single vs. double needles, percutaneous venipuncture vs. vascular catheters, commercial blood culture collections kits, and even the phlebotomy team are important factors to consider. Unlike normally just using alcohol, skin should be disinfected with iodine and a mixture of isopropyl alcohol. The site should be allowed to dry without touch anything else. Disinfecting the blood culture bottles have shown to have lower contamination rates. Also, contamination is “2 to 5 times …show more content…
The problem seems to all come down to following proper procedures correctly and having the appropriate knowledge. The problem in Archbold is majority coming from the ER which is understandable because they do not get as much practice. As with everything, practice makes perfect. Archbold has a phlebotomist in the ER but only one. There is no way she can cover it all, so other nurses take the draws sometimes. Providing a phlebotomist in the ER is very cost efficient. Having procedure manuals available to nurses to review when they feel the need to will help provide them with knowledge. Reducing contamination will solve problems within the hospital and especially for the patients. Appropriate care can be provided with confidence that the results are the