Supporting your vital teamwork
Diagnosing patients with suspected sepsis or blood stream infections (BSIs) can feel like a race against time. A race in which everyone must know their role and pull together as one team to achieve the best outcomes.
After early recognition, timely blood culture and follow-up diagnostics play a key role in identifying the pathogen responsible for infections leading to sepsis and are vital for guiding targeted antimicrobial therapy.1
But it is rarely that seamless, especially when your time and resources are already overstretched.
Sepsis continues to be a leading cause of mortality and critical illness in the UK, with at least 245,000 cases detected annually causing up to 48,000 deaths per year.2
This is why every minute and every hour counts.3 Take a look at your blood culture pathway at every stage, in and out of the laboratory. What role can you play in getting the right patient the right treatment at the right time?
Common mistakes
Many clinical workers only collect two blood culture bottles per patient, often with insufficient volume in each.4,5 And getting those blood culture bottles into the analyser is not always done in the optimal time frame.3,5
But this won’t do – it may not be sufficient to recover the organism responsible for the infection.3,6 Furthermore, NHS England published recommendations in June 2022: there should be no more than 4 hours from collecting the blood culture, to loading into the blood culture analyser.5
Not following these guidelines might mean you don’t reveal the full diagnostic picture. BSIs can be missed, re-draws may be necessary, and appropriate antibiotic therapy could be delayed. All of which adds to the pressures you’re already under, making adhering to antibiotic stewardship more difficult, and most importantly, can put patient outcomes on the line.
BD BACTEC™ Plus Aerobic/F Culture Vials
BD BACTEC™ Lytic/10 Anaerobic/F Culture Vials
The power of four
It’s important to collect at least four bottles (with 8-10 ml of blood in each) and load into the blood culture analyser within a four-hour window.5,7 Every time, for every patient*.
This way, you can optimise the blood culture diagnostic pathway, for more timely and accurate diagnostic testing. Because there is a life connected to every specimen.
*Please refer to manufacturer guidance on recommended blood volumes for paediatric samples.
#Collect4RevealMore guide
Claim your free downloadable guide – it’s your one-stop-shop for all the key facts and guidance you’ll need to bring speed and accuracy to your blood culture pathway.
Best practice in action
So, how should it be done? Our best practice video gives our top tips for blood culture specimen collection, with clear descriptions for each role, at each step. Or, check out the Infection Management Coalition (IMC) whitepaper to find out how bodies in the sector are coming together to drive a new and improved approach.
BD Bloodstream Infection (BSI) Solution
We have a range of efficient, connected and safe solutions across all three phases of the blood culture pathway – preanalytical, analytical and post-analytical.
Come and talk to us!
Let’s have a conversation on best practice. Click below to learn more about upcoming BD events and where to find us.
Let’s have a conversation about best practice
