ECHO
Blood cultures should be cut in EDs
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Guidelines on targeted use of blood cultures are needed to avoid wasting resources, according experience in one emergency department in Glasgow, Scotland, UK.Doctors there found only four instances over two years’ retrospective review when blood cultures directly influenced patient management, for which empirical costs for consumables alone amounted to just over £3500. Though theirs was not an economic study and in practice more than four patients would need them, the doctors believe that taking blood cultures could be significantly reduced without missing true positive cases.
The patients whose blood cultures were warranted and influenced their management included three whose antibiotic treatment was changed according to the sensitivity profile of the bacteria isolated and one in whom urine culture and renal ultrasonography confirmed pyelonephritis. Theirs were four out of just 30 true positive blood cultures yielding various bacterial spp, most commonly Escherichia coli. In total, 2213 blood cultures were taken,
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