Education and coaching to optimise blood culture volumes: continuous quality improvement in microbiology

The blood volume cultured in the detection of bacteraemia is a major variable in treating patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome. The fact that drawing optimal volumes (8–10 mL) of blood for culture increases the sensitivity of the method is well established. This study aimed to optimise the mean blood volumes (mBVs) to that recommended level in a small rural hospital by implementing a continuous quality improvement programme in clinical microbiology. The education of phlebotomists, followed by monthly feedback and coaching sessions, can influence the blood volume drawn by phlebotomists and improve the sensitivity of blood cultures. Statistically significant increase (p<0.001) in both mBVs and median blood culture volumes occurred within 5 months compared with the baseline values obtained in the preceding 10 months. This quality improvement was sustained over 1 year. The mBVs inoculated into aerobic culture bottles met the manufacturer’s instructions of a fill volume of 8 to 10 mL of blood per bottle and optimised the yield of isolation of organisms from blood cultures.