Reducing Blood Culture Contamination Starts at Collection

Blood culture contamination can lead to unnecessary treatment, increased resource utilization, and operational burden across hospitals.

Save Money

Reduce false positives, length of stay, and avoidable hospital costs.

Save Lives

Inaccurate test results can lead to increased LOS and put patients at a greater risk of HAIs.

Save Resources

Unnecessary treatments can drain hospital resources, inpatient capacities, and throughput.

Video

Cry Wolf: 
Consequences
of false positive blood cultures

Approximately 1/3 of all positive blood cultures are false positive

At a 3%11 contamination rate, roughly 1 in 3 positive results may be false.

< 1% is now achievable.

Why are blood cultures contaminated?

1

Sources of contamination

Several points of potential contamination exist during routine blood culture collection.

2

The most common contaminant

Skin microbes reside both on the surface and deep within the epidermis, which may not be accessible to skin antisepsis. Cored by the needle, these contaminants may travel into the blood specimen during venipuncture.

Consistency in Collection Matters

Find out how we can help your collection process meet the new standard of <1%.

Learn more