Abstract
Blood cultures are integral diagnostic procedures for identifying serious infections and selecting antimicrobials. Positive blood cultures are the initial step in attaining a conclusive diagnosis of sepsis. Relative risk is blood culture contamination, false-positive blood culture results, diagnostic error delays, treatment errors, excessive lab testing, and increased length of stay. A complicating issue is the increased use of central venous access devices (CVADs). The purpose of this descriptive, comparative study is to evaluate the effectiveness of blood culture bundles on blood cultures drawn through a CVAD and contamination rates. The study revealed a decrease in blood culture contamination rates by 61%.