Kurin Helps Entire Health System Achieve 1%

Key Takeaways

A four-hospital health system in the southern US experienced a system-wide blood culture contamination (BCC) rate above 6.0% despite multiple interventions.

• The implementation of Kurin ultimately resulted in system-wide savings greater than $12 million with sustained results well below national standards.
• This case study highlights the steps this system took to finally achieve their goal of being below the 1% target.

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Situation

• Estimated $13.5M lost annually
• Steripath ISDD reduced baseline 6.2% to 2.8%
• Could not meet 1% target with Steripath product line
• Introduced Kurin to increase compliance and system achieved 1% target

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Baseline Performance

The system had a mean BCC rate of 6.2% across all four hospitals.

Pre-diversion interventions:

• Education
• Developed CLABSI Nurse Quality Team
• Eliminated central line draws

The system implemented the Steripath^® Initial Specimen Diversion Device (ISDD) trialing two products: Gen II and Micro.

• Over 12 months, the Steripath ISDD lowered the system-wide BCC to an average of 2.85%.
• The hospital attributed poor compliance to the device’s difficulty of use, and they were unable to achieve the 1% target for BCC recommended by CLSI and CDC^1,2

To improve compliance and further reduce BCC, the system adopted Kurin passive technology as an alternative intervention.

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Kurin Implementation and Process

The system’s commitment to a process improvement framework laid the foundation for the successful implementation of the Kurin Lock^®.

• In-person and online resources aided adoption
• Kurin Lock was integrated into standard kits and tracked compliance through EMR
• Kurin Lock seamlessly integrated into hospital procedures

The comprehensive, device driven, implementation led to an immediate reduction in BCC rates.

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Results

The adoption of Kurin led to a significant decrease in the system-wide contamination rate, declining to < 1%.

• This reduction from baseline results represents an estimated annual savings of $12.2M based on the average CDC cost of contamination¹.
• Switching from Steripath (2.85%) to Kurin (< 1%) represents an additional estimated savings of $4.9M annually for the system.

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Download a PDF of this study.

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REFERENCES:
¹ CDC. Blood Culture Contamination: An Overview for Infection Control and Antibiotic Stewardship Programs Working with the Clinical Laboratory. August 2022.
² CLSI. Principles and Procedures for Blood Cultures. 2nd ed. CLSI guideline M47. Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute; 2022.