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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2018
Is it time for a culture change? Blood culture collection in the emergency department.
- Kerina J Denny, Amy Sweeny, Julia Crilly, Samuel Maloney, and Gerben Keijzers.
- Emergency Department, Gold Coast University Hospital, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
- Emerg Med Australas. 2018 Aug 1; 30 (4): 575-577.
ObjectiveTo describe how frequently blood cultures (BCs) are obtained in the ED and to describe the incidence of true- and false-positive BC results.MethodsRetrospective descriptive study of all patients presenting to a tertiary-level, mixed Australian ED over a 15 month period.ResultsA total of 3617 (3.67%) patients had BCs collected. Around one (12.1%) in eight of these BCs were positive; nearly half (45.2%) of which were identified as a false positive.ConclusionsBCs are a common investigation in the ED with a high false-positive rate. Strategies are required to reduce false positives, including reducing inappropriate collection and improving collection techniques.© 2018 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine.
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