Blood culture
Counting blood cultures for ICU labs (Labs collected list).
Protocol
For the purpose of the ICU lab count collection we are counting the number of sites
For example:
- Blood drawn from one site inoculated into any number of bottles=1
- Blood drawn from two sites inoculated into any number of bottles=2
Our guidelines for counting blood cultures have nothing to do with any other guidelines or criteria.
Legacy
This was changed as discussed and decided by Dr Garland at the task meeting on August 21,2014
Blood cultures used to be counted differently and inconsistently before 2014-Aug-21. Counts were based on the collection of a "properly" executed sampling from two sites according to policy. It was changed to actual number of samples because we usually use this data either for cost or workload measures, an in both cases actual number of samples is more relevant.