Although we have had a lot of success in my medical center in significantly reducing the rate of blood culture contamination, unfortunately, blood culture contamination continues to occur here and elsewhere. Contaminated blood cultures are not without consequence.
A recent publication in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology reminds us that contaminated blood cultures result in unnecessary antibiotic administration, additional laboratory tests and procedures, and hospital readmissions.
Apart from proper phlebotomy and blood culture collection technique, the first step in reducing this wasteful and potentially harmful result is to order blood cultures only when clinically necessary.
This last point seems self evident, however, this principle is violated over and over.
