Do blood contamination reduction devices work? A single institution comparison

Maria E Navas, Salman Siddiq, Laurie Bauer, Jose A Rivera, Anita J White, Stella Ache, Mark Osborne, Nataliya Kachaluba, Brian Klonowski, Christine Robbins, and Curtis Donskey from VA Medical Center, VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System

Abstract
We compare two initial specimen diversion devices evaluated over 3 months to investigate their utility in lowering blood culture contamination rates at or below 1%. Overall contamination rates during trial periods were 2.46% and 2.60% but usage was low, whereas device-specific contamination rates were 0.68% and 0.8%, respectively.

Results
During the first phase (Kurin) 441 of 1,626 (27.12%) BC sets returned with a completed device slip versus 254 of 1,126 (22.55%) during the second phase (Steripath). During the trial periods, the contamination rate was 2.46% for the Kurin and 2.60% for the Steripath, which was lower than the same months the prior year (3%), but higher than the desired 50% reduction from the prior year, and higher than the new 1% benchmark. The device-specific contamination rates were 0.68% (3/441) for the Kurin device and 0.8% (2/254) for the Steripath device. Twenty-six surveys were analyzed from Steripath and 20 from Kurin users. The device was rated worse than the standard of care by 73% of users for Steripath and 30% for Kurin. The need for the phlebotomist to activate the Steripath by squeezing the device created complications for some users. No device failures were reported with Kurin.

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