Abstract
The purpose of this abstract is to describe how the team was able to decrease blood culture contamination rates by 50% in a year through a spirit of inquiry and the creative design of a practice change that engaged an entire emergency department. Contaminated blood cultures, specifically those drawn in an emergent setting, are detrimental to patients and healthcare systems alike. For patients, hospital stays are lengthened, depending on the site of the draw and necessary treatment, and costs associated with contaminated blood cultures are significantly increased. For health care systems, mortality can increase and more resources are required to care for patients whose recoveries are delayed by erroneous diagnostic results.
Sigma Membership
Non-member
Type
Poster
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
N/A
Research Approach
N/A
Keywords:
Contamination, Process, Nurses
Recommended Citation
Anderson, Kate; Turner, Heather; Edwards, Taran; Smith, Caroline; Stewart, Stacey N.; Lovell, Desta L.; and Sheridan, Kaitlyn, "Decreasing blood culture contamination: Inquiry, empowerment, engagement" (2020). General Submissions: Presenations (Oral and Poster). 87.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/gen_sub_presentations/2019/posters/87
Conference Name
Emergency Nursing 2019
Conference Host
Emergency Nurses Association
Conference Location
Austin, Texas, USA
Conference Year
2019
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.
All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Decreasing blood culture contamination: Inquiry, empowerment, engagement
Austin, Texas, USA
The purpose of this abstract is to describe how the team was able to decrease blood culture contamination rates by 50% in a year through a spirit of inquiry and the creative design of a practice change that engaged an entire emergency department. Contaminated blood cultures, specifically those drawn in an emergent setting, are detrimental to patients and healthcare systems alike. For patients, hospital stays are lengthened, depending on the site of the draw and necessary treatment, and costs associated with contaminated blood cultures are significantly increased. For health care systems, mortality can increase and more resources are required to care for patients whose recoveries are delayed by erroneous diagnostic results.