Korean J healthc assoc Infect Control Prev.  2019 Dec;24(2):97-102. 10.14192/kjicp.2019.24.2.97.

Comparison of Blood Culture Contamination Rate Before and After Improving Skin Antisepsis Methods in Blood Culture

• Yim JY
• Cho HJ
• Choi YH
• Moon KS

• KMID: 2467909
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.14192/kjicp.2019.24.2.97

Abstract

BACKGROUND
This study aims to investigate blood culture contamination rates before and after improving the skin antisepsis methods used in blood cultures, and to compare the differences observed.
METHODS
This is a retrospective investigation study comparing the blood culture contamination rates before and after applying the skin disinfection method for blood cultures at a tertiary hospital. Blood culture tests were conducted for 25 months, from October 2016 to October 2018. We measured the blood culture contamination rates monthly, for one year each, before and after the improvement of activities applied in October 2017. The analyses were carried out using the Mann-Whitney U test, a non-parametric statistical method of the SPSS 25 statistical program.
RESULTS
The mean blood culture contamination rate was 1.8% before the improvement of skin antisepsis methods for blood cultures and 0.8% after improvements in skin antisepsis methods for blood cultures. The difference in the mean rates of blood culture contamination was statistically significant (P < .001).
CONCLUSION
00 This study confirmed the reduction of blood culture contamination rates after adhering to the improved method of applying skin antisepsis. Therefore, these results may be meaningful in that they can provide basic data for the preparation of clinical guidelines that aim to reduce culture contamination rates.

Keyword

Blood culture contamination rate; Antisepsis

MeSH Terms

Antisepsis*
Disinfection
Methods*
Retrospective Studies
Skin*
Tertiary Care Centers

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Monthly blood culture contamination rate.

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