Blood culture

What is a Blood Culture? (Blood C&S)

A blood culture is a microbiological "procedure" that is ordered as a set.

One set consists of 2 to 3 bottles of blood from two different sites within 5 mins or so, of each other. (1 aerobic bottle & 1 or 2 anaerobic bottle) Template:It actually is 2 aerobic bottles and 1 anaerobic bottleJthiessen 15:06, 2014 August 7 (CDT) The set is counted as ONE blood culture for Labs collected list.

Hospital all have a nursing procedure protocol.

Template:Discussion 2 bottles from 1 venipuncture site, this is not a complete blood culture and the question is "why would a unit not be following a protocol"?

This should only be counted as ONE SET of blood cultures.

{{CULTURE and the CENTRAL LINE RELATED INFECTION categories seem to contradict each other on the wiki in terms of what ONE SET of blood cultures are. Under the category BLOOD CULTURE it reads (in part): A blood culture is a microbiological "procedure" that is ordered as a set. One set consists of 2 to 3 bottles of blood from two different sites within 5 mins or so, of each other. (1 aerobic bottle & 1 or 2 anaerobic bottle) . The set is counted as ONE blood culture for Labs collected list. On the wiki under CENTRAL LINE RELATED INFECTION the ‘definition’ of blood cultures reads (in part) One blood culture is defined as one site (at least one of two bottles from a Blood culture set is reported as having grown at least one organism). On the wiki under central line related infection it also states: Separate occasions for the Blood cultures can range from 15 minutes apart to within 48 hours of each culture. • Different ports of the same line is considered 2 sites. • o For counting on the Labs collection list see what is a Blood culture.

Here are my thoughts to make it consistent. As nurses we know that: • When blood cultures are ordered, it means that blood is to be drawn from 2 different sites to make a complete blood culture set. • The order is often written as “Blood cultures X 2” indicating that we are to collect blood from 2 sites (common knowledge) • Sometimes patients have very difficult peripheral venous access and it is impossible to get a complete set of cultures, so sometimes only one or two bottles are sent instead of the full set, and only from one site • Sometimes after getting only one or two bottles of a blood culture set peripherally from one site the pt may then have an arterial line and/or a central line inserted and then the nurse sends blood culture bottles from the arterial and central lines– usually a complete set of bottles, which exceeds the required number of bottles sent for an actual blood culture set ( if you count the peripheral set sent earlier). (The extra bottles are sent because those lines are put in under a sterile procedure and are less likely to have a microorganism that is a contaminant). • Sometimes the delay between sending the initial peripheral blood culture bottles and the blood culture bottles from the arterial and/or central line can be a few hours and certainly exceeds 5 minutes or so (as outlined on the wiki definition of blood culture) Given these points that I have raised, I would find it LEAST confusing from a data collector’s point of view to actually count the number of SITES from which blood is taken instead of counting the number of blood cultures, because in the clinical setting there is often a discrepancy between • the number of bottles actually sent for a blood culture set, and • the time lapse between the bottles that are sent (it can exceed the 5 minutes that the blood culture definition on wiki uses) By counting each SITE as a blood culture, there is a concrete number that is not subject to interpretation of a ‘set’ and the data collected will be more consistent. I realize that the true definition of blood cultures varies from this. However, blood culture orders are often written as “blood cultures X 2” so when the situation is ideal and cultures are collected in a routine fashion without delay, the number '2' in the labs section of our data would be recognized/interpreted as one blood culture set. However, because of the less than ideal clinical situations that occasionally make it difficult to send a true set of blood cultures, each data collector ends up using their own interpretation of what constitutes a blood culture when there were ‘incomplete’ blood culture sets or blood sent from more than 2 sites with (or without) a time delay }} Jthiessen 15:17, 2014 August 7 (CDT)