Abstract
To increase the quality of the treatment of infectious diseases with appropriate blood cultures, we have encouraged the cultivation of multiple sets of blood cultures since 2011 via promotional activities. To evaluate the changes in blood cultures in our hospitals, we compared several quality control indexes of the blood cultures before and after beginning our promotional activities. The number of blood cultures has increased 2.2x, the number of blood cultures per 1,000 patient days has increased 2.4x, the rates of multi-set cultures significantly increased from 2.7% to 92.2%, and positive rates of blood culture in adult patients decreased from 21.7% to 13.5%. Of the single set positive cases in multi-set blood cultures, 72.0% of isolated bacteria were regarded as pathogens, 16.8% as contaminants, and 11.2% could not be identified conclusively. After the promotional activities, isolation rates of enteric bacteria including Escherichia coli have increased, and those of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) have decreased. The marked increase in the number of blood cultures, patients with blood cultures, and the rate of multi-set blood cultures is thought to reflect recognition of the importance of blood cultures among clinicians due to the promotional activities run by the infection control team. Moreover, evaluation using quality control indexes of blood cultures is indispensable for appropriate blood culture and infectious disease treatment.
