Impact on Resources & Quality

False positive blood cultures can increase unnecessary treatment, resource utilization, and operational burden.

Conserve
laboratory
resources

Improve patient
throughput

Limit needless
investigation &
reporting

Help reduce
unnecessary
ID consults

Reduce
supply waste

Supporting Evidence

Accurate HOB & CLABSI Reporting

Blood culture contamination may affect quality metric reporting, antibiotic stewardship efforts, and downstream resource utilization.

With an estimated 1.2 million BCCs in the U.S. annually, the negative impact on hospitals is substantial.

Increase in length of stay (LOS) per false positive result limits available beds.²⁸

of patients with a false positive undergo repeat blood draws.⁵⁸

Increased use of unnecessary antibiotics with blood culture contaminations.¹⁴

Testimonial

UMass Memorial Health, Worcester, MA²¹

False positive blood cultures begin a cascade of unnecessary treatment that may impact the financial bottom line.

Reducing contamination may help improve diagnostic accuracy and prevent unnecessary treatment, thereby lowering patient risk.