Clean the skin: Reducing blood culture contamination in the emergency department

Lincoln McNab; Wayne Varndell; Elia Vecellio; Angela L Chiew

doi:10.1111/1742-6723.14092

Clean the skin: Reducing blood culture contamination in the emergency department

Emerg Med Australas. 2022 Dec;34(6):1006-1008. doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.14092. Epub 2022 Sep 29.

Authors

Lincoln McNab¹, Wayne Varndell^{2

3}, Elia Vecellio⁴, Angela L Chiew²

Affiliations

¹ Prince of Wales Clinical School, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
² Department of Emergency Medicine, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
³ School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁴ NSW Health Pathology, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether blood culture contamination (BCC) rates could be decreased in the ED by an educational programme.

Methods: Educational intervention focusing on a 1-min venepuncture cleaning time and providing a larger chlorhexidine alcohol swab. BCC rates were examined retrospectively 12-month pre-, and 9-month post-intervention.

Results: Six thousand nine hundred and fifty-three blood cultures were collected over the study period. The BCC rate was 2.4% pre-intervention versus 1.8% post-intervention, with no significant difference in BCC rates (Z-score = 1.862, P = 0.063).

Conclusion: This educational intervention focusing on skin clean time did not significantly decrease BCC rates in a setting of an already low (<3%) BCC rate.

Keywords: blood culture; contamination; education; sepsis.

MeSH terms

Blood Culture*
Blood Specimen Collection*
Chlorhexidine / pharmacology
Chlorhexidine / therapeutic use
Emergency Service, Hospital
Humans
Retrospective Studies

Substances

Chlorhexidine