Abstract
Introduction
Sepsis is a complex, life-threatening condition, posing a significant burden to both NHS resources and society in general. Bacteraemia is a common presentation in surgical pathology and requires prompt investigation and treatment. Blood cultures remain the gold standard for detecting bacteraemia and providing targeted antibiotic therapy. We aimed to improve the overall use of blood cultures in pyrexial surgical patients.
Method
A three-loop, prospective quality improvement project was performed. Patients identified as being pyrexial were reviewed to determine when it was recorded and whether blood cultures were taken. Following a departmental presentation, two further audit cycles were performed at two months and seven months post-intervention to determine long-term response.
Result
A total of 56 patients were included over the three audit cycles. Blood culture adherence improved from 58.7% at baseline to 65% at 7 months. Most notably, out-of-hours compliance improved from 44.4% to 66.6%. 2-month compliance was 85%, however, this comprised of only 7 patients.
Conclusions
Early recognition and management of sepsis remains a key area of improvement. Whilst overall and out-of-hour blood culture compliance improved, continued education is needed to further increase this.
Increasing the volume of blood received in adult paired blood culture bottles at a regional public health laboratory: results of a quality improvement project to optimise the diagnosis of bacteraemia