1956. Reduction in Endotracheal Aspirate Cultures after Implementation of a Diagnostic Stewardship Intervention in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Background Clinicians obtain endotracheal aspirate (ETA) cultures from mechanically ventilated patients in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for the evaluation of ventilator-associated infection (i.e., tracheitis or pneumonia). Positive cultures prompt clinicians to treat with antibiotics even though ETA cultures cannot distinguish bacterial colonization from infection. We undertook a quality improvement initiative to standardize the use of endotracheal cultures in the evaluation of ventilator-associated infections among hospitalized children. Methods A multidisciplinary team developed a clinical decision support algorithm to guide when to obtain ETA cultures from patients admitted to the PICU and ventilated for >1 day. We disseminated the algorithm to all bedside providers in the PICU in April 2018 and compared the rate of cultures one year before and after the intervention using Poisson regression and a quasi-experimental interrupted time-series models. Charge savings were estimated based on $220 average charge for one ETA culture. Results In the pre-intervention period, there was an average of 46 ETA cultures per month, a total of 557 cultures over 5,092 ventilator-days; after introduction of the algorithm, there were 19 cultures obtained per month, a total of 231 cultures over 3,554 ventilator-days (incident rate 10.9 vs. 6.5 per 100 ventilator-days, Figure 1). There was a 43% decrease in the monthly rate of cultures (IRR 0.57, 95% CI 0.50–0.67, P < 0.001). The ITSA revealed a pre-existing 2% decline in the monthly culture rate (IRR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97–1.00, P = 0.01), an immediate 44% drop (IRR 0.56, 95% CI 0.45–0.69, P = 0.02) and a stable rate in the post-intervention period (IRR 1.03, 95% CI 0.99–1.07, P = 0.09). The intervention led to an estimated $6000 in monthly charge savings. Conclusion Introduction of a clinical decision support algorithm to standardize the obtainment of ETA cultures from ventilated children was associated with a significant decline in the rate of ETA cultures. Additional investigation will assess the impact on balancing measures and secondary outcomes including mortality, duration of ventilation, duration of admission, readmissions, and antibiotic prescribing. Disclosures All Authors: No reported Disclosures.