What are the general guidelines for collection of blood culture?

What are the general guidelines for collection of blood culture?

Method/Procedure

• Locate the vein to be used.
• Remove Frepp™ from package.
• Place sponge on selected venipuncture site and depress once or twice to saturate sponge.
• Use a back and forth friction scrub for at least 30 seconds.
• Allow area prepared to dry for approximately 30 seconds.
• Proceed with collection of blood.

When would it be appropriate to take a set of blood cultures?

Ideally blood cultures should be taken before the start of any antimicrobial therapy and as soon as possible after a spike of fever. The recommended specimen volume of blood is: Bactec Plus Aerobic/F bottle: 5-10 ml.

How often should blood cultures be drawn?

FREQUENCY OF REPEAT BLOOD CULTURES The Infectious Diseases Society of America recommends repeating blood cultures 2 to 4 days after the index positive culture in the case of multidrug-resistant S aureus bacteremia, and every day or every other day for candidemia.

What is the accepted threshold for blood culture contamination?

According to the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) overall blood culture contamination rates should not exceed 3% [1,2], however reported contamination rates in hospitals vary widely ranging from 0.6% to 12.5%, with the highest rates associated with emergency …

Why do you draw blood cultures from 2 different sites?

Why are two specimens required from two separate sites? To mitigate this perceived inevitability, 2 cultures are drawn for each collection from two separate insertion sites. This helps to distinguish true bloodstream infection (in which both specimens will be positive with the same organism) vs.

Why are blood cultures always drawn first?

1. Blood Culture Bottles – Used for bacterial and fungal cultures. Must be drawn first to reduce the potential hazard of bacterial, fungal, quantitative, CMV, and/or any other specimen contamination.

What are the indications for blood cultures?

Indications for blood culture include symptoms of bacteremia or sepsis, such as the following:

• Fever, chills.
• Rapid breathing and heart rate.
• Confusion.
• Severe hypotension.
• Decreased urine output.

How long are blood cultures good for?

Blood cultures can be held at room temperature for up to 12 hours after collection before placing in the BacTAlert. After 12 hours they can no longer be tested in the analyzer.

What are the four reasons a blood culture result can be a false positive?

Among the causes of false positive growth in blood culture systems due to the microorganisms include; (i) slow and fastidious microorganisms, (ii) microorganisms that cannot be cultured, (iii) anaerobic microorganisms, (iv) bacteria more sensitive to environmental conditions such as S.

How do you collect two sets of blood cultures?

At least two (2) sets of blood cultures should be obtained (each set includes one (1) aerobic and one (1) anaerobic bottle). Each set of blood cultures are to be drawn from two separate venipuncture sites at approximately 15 minutes apart.

Can nurses take blood cultures?

Nurses have a number of responsibilities to perform to maintain their patients’ well being, including collecting blood specimens. Blood culture collections are needed to make sure that patients do not have any foreign organisms in their bloodstream that can prevent them from remaining healthy.

Do you draw aerobic or anaerobic blood cultures first?

If other blood samples are being taken, ensure blood culture samples are taken first. 5. The blue (aerobic) blood culture bottle should be filled first, then the purple (anaerobic) bottle as the butterfly tubing may contain air. Air entering the purple bottle will impede the growth of anaerobic organisms.

How many blood cultures are needed?

The results of this study indicate that two blood cultures in a 24-h period will detect approximately 90% of bloodstream infections in adults. To achieve a detection rate of >99%, as many as four blood cultures may be needed.

Why would a doctor order a blood culture?

A blood culture test helps your doctor figure out if you have a kind of infection that is in your bloodstream and can affect your entire body. Doctors call this a systemic infection. The test checks a sample of your blood for bacteria or yeast that might be causing the infection.

Why would a blood culture be ordered?

Blood cultures are used to detect the presence of bacteria or fungi in the blood, to identify the type present, and to guide treatment. Testing is used to identify a blood infection (septicemia) that can lead to sepsis, a serious and life-threatening complication.

What is the most common contaminant of blood cultures?

In fact, coagulase-negative staphylococci are the most common blood culture contaminants, typically representing 70% to 80% of all contaminated blood cultures (25, 92, 105, 113, 125).

What do I do if my blood culture is positive?

If two or more of your blood cultures come back positive for the same type of bacteria or fungi, it’s likely that that’s the type of bacteria or yeast that’s causing your infection. An infection in your blood is serious. You’ll need immediate treatment, probably in a hospital.

What does a contaminated blood culture mean to the patient?

Blood culture contamination is defined as the recovery of normal skin flora (coagulase-negative staphylococci, Propionibacterium spp., Aerococcus, Micrococcus, Bacillus spp. [not B. anthracis], Corynebacterium spp. [diphtheroids], and alpha-hemolytic streptococci) from a single blood culture.