Abstract
Comparison of the total number of blood cultures per sickbed in fiscal 2011 with the cooperating hospital, Aizawa Hospital, found that only 1/3 of the staff of the cooperating hospital understood that blood cultures were not obtained. Therefore, active education about blood cultures was performed based on the numbers of blood cultures in a senior medical staff meeting. Electronic medical record displays were used to provide information about blood cultures in specific antimicrobial order. As a result, the collection of blood cultures per 1,000 inpatient-days increased from 11.7 before education to 16.7 in the first year and 21.3 in the second year after education, or almost double the number of blood cultures. This data was shared with cooperating hospitals to show the effect of education on use of blood cultures.
