TY - JOUR
T1 - Factors associated with blood culture contamination in the emergency department
T2 - Critical illness, end-stage renal disease, and old age
AU - Chang, Chih Jan
AU - Wu, Chi Jung
AU - Hsu, Hsiang Chin
AU - Wu, Chiu Hui
AU - Shih, Fang Ying
AU - Wang, Shou Wen
AU - Wu, Yi Hui
AU - Chang, Chia Ming
AU - Tu, Yi Fang
AU - Chi, Chih Hsien
AU - Shih, Hsin I.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2015 Chang et al.
PY - 2015/10/8
Y1 - 2015/10/8
N2 - Background: Blood culture contamination in emergency departments (ED) that experience a high volume of patients has negative impacts on optimal patient care. It is therefore important to identify risk factors associated with blood culture contamination in EDs. Methodology/Principal Findings: prospectively observational study in a university-affiliated hospital were conducted between August 2011 and December 2012. Positive monomicrobial and negative blood cultures drawn from adult patients in the ED were analyzed to evaluate the possible risk factors for contamination. A total of 1,148 positive monomicrobial cases, 391 contamination cases, and 13,689 cases of negative blood culture were identified. Compared to patients with negative blood cultures, patients in triage levels 1 and 2 (Incidence Rate Ratio, IRR = 2.24), patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) (IRR = 2.05), and older patients (IRR: 1.02 per year) were more likely to be associated with ED blood culture contamination. Conclusions/Significance: Critical patients (triage levels 1 and 2), ESRD patients, and older patients were more commonly associated with blood culture contamination in the ED. Further studies to evaluate whether the characteristics of skin commensals contribute to blood culture contamination is warranted, especially in hospitals populated with high-risk patients.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
AB - Background: Blood culture contamination in emergency departments (ED) that experience a high volume of patients has negative impacts on optimal patient care. It is therefore important to identify risk factors associated with blood culture contamination in EDs. Methodology/Principal Findings: prospectively observational study in a university-affiliated hospital were conducted between August 2011 and December 2012. Positive monomicrobial and negative blood cultures drawn from adult patients in the ED were analyzed to evaluate the possible risk factors for contamination. A total of 1,148 positive monomicrobial cases, 391 contamination cases, and 13,689 cases of negative blood culture were identified. Compared to patients with negative blood cultures, patients in triage levels 1 and 2 (Incidence Rate Ratio, IRR = 2.24), patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) (IRR = 2.05), and older patients (IRR: 1.02 per year) were more likely to be associated with ED blood culture contamination. Conclusions/Significance: Critical patients (triage levels 1 and 2), ESRD patients, and older patients were more commonly associated with blood culture contamination in the ED. Further studies to evaluate whether the characteristics of skin commensals contribute to blood culture contamination is warranted, especially in hospitals populated with high-risk patients.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0137653
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0137653
M3 - Article
C2 - 26448628
AN - SCOPUS:84949032887
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 10
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 10
M1 - e0137653
ER -