Blood Culture Contamination Rate Reporting: ASM Subcommittee Recommendations for Standardized Criteria
This ASM Laboratory Practices Subcommittee report provides practical recommendations for calculating and reporting blood culture contamination rates as part of laboratory quality management. It addresses the lack of universally defined pre-set criteria, outlines parameters for defining contamination, and recommends additional analyses for comprehensive reporting to healthcare system committees.
The original study
Laboratory approaches to determining blood culture contamination rates: an ASM Laboratory Practices Subcommittee report.
- Authors
- Palavecino EL, Campodónico VL, She RC
- Journal
- Journal of clinical microbiology
- Type
- Journal Article, Review
- PMID
- 38051070
Original abstract
Blood culture contamination (BCC) is the presence of specific commensal and environmental organisms cultivated from a single blood culture set out of a blood culture series and that do not represent true bacteremia. BCC can impact quality of care and lead to negative outcomes, unnecessary antibiotic exposure, prolonged hospital stays, and substantial costs. As part of the laboratory's quality management plan, microbiology laboratory personnel are tasked with monitoring BCC rates, preparing BCC rate reports, and providing feedback to the appropriate committees within their healthcare system. The BCC rate is calculated by the laboratory using pre-set criteria. However, pre-set criteria are not universally defined and depend on the individual institution's patient population and practices. This mini-review provides practical recommendations on elaborating BCC rate reports, the parameters to define for the pre-set criteria, how to collect and interpret the data, and additional analysis to include in a BCC report.