Sepsis Misdiagnosis Impacts 1.4 Million Patients and Costs the U.S. Healthcare System $6 Billion Annually
Every false-positive result puts patient safety at risk and could cost your hospital millions of dollars in unnecessary tests and treatments.
Calculating the Costs of Blood Culture Contamination
The national goal for blood culture contamination rate is 1% with best practices. Is your hospital on the path toward achieving this target and taking a major step forward for patient safety and quality outcomes in the suspected sepsis population? Preventing a contaminated blood culture result reduces the risk for unnecessary and prolonged administration of antibiotics, extended hospital stays, and other costly, downstream impacts.
What are the avoidable costs for a typical hospital that has a 3% contamination rate in the emergency department (ED) and performs ~800 blood cultures each month.
833
cultures / month
3.0%
contamination rate
25 Patients
impacted by false-positives each month
300
patients impacted / year
$4,162
average cost / incident
$1,248,600
avoidable costs
Improve Patient Care and Your Institution’s Quality Outcomes with Steripath®
Steripath has been clinically proven to achieve sustained rates of near-zero blood culture contamination rates, one of the leading causes of false-positive test results and a misdiagnosis of sepsis.
31% Reduction
In Vancomycin Days of Therapy (DOT) to support your hospital’s antibiotic stewardship goals and reduce the risk of antibiotic-related adverse effects
~2.2 days
Shortened length of stay to gain bed days and reduce patient risk of exposure to Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAIs) and Hospital-Acquired Conditions (HACs)
12-Fold decrease
In NHSN/CMS reportable false-positive central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs)
Accurate blood culture results allows your clinicians to optimize treatment plans and protects patients from the emotional stress of unnecessary tests and treatments caused by a false-positive result.
Developed by Physicians. Backed by Science. Proven Results.
Stanford Health Care
Conclusion: Study results reported zero blood culture contamination events (0.0% contamination rate) and zero false-positive CLABSIs out of 4,462 blood cultures drawn with the Steripath Gen2 Initial Specimen Diversion Device during a four-month study, versus 29 contaminated sets in 922 blood cultures using traditional methods (3.15% contamination rate)
Brooke Army Medical Center
Using Steripath decreased blood culture contamination events for bacterial bloodstream infections by 90% compared to the standard method (P<0.0001). After the implementation of Steripath the average total vancomycin days of therapy reduced by 31%. Widescale implementation of Steripath could bolster antibiotic stewardship, mitigating antibiotic resistance caused by unnecessary antibacterial treatments
Mass General, Harvard Medical School, Wing Tech
Conclusion: The use of Steripath ISDD is the single most effective intervention so far explored for reducing costs related to false-positive blood cultures, and would save the average hospital (250-400-bed hospital) $1.9M or $186 per blood culture, and prevent 34 HACs, including 3 C. difficile cases
Our collective vision to surpass the accepted norm for blood culture contamination rates began with Steripath® ISDD® after previous interventions, including training & education and device interventions, failed to sustain contamination rates below 3%.
With Steripath, we achieved a sustained hospital-wide reduction in contamination rates of 81% and have promoted a process through objective study that endorses Steripath for blood culture collection and contamination prevention across WVU Medicine facilities.
“
Mark D. Povroznik, PharmD
VP, Quality and Safety / Chief Quality Officer
Chairman, Infection Control
Chairman, System Infection Control Affinity
The experience accumulated with the Steripath® ISDD® device both in objective, systematic investigations published in the peer-reviewed literature as well as in routine practice in hundreds of healthcare settings throughout the United States is compelling.
Clearly, the Steripath device represents a safe, convenient and cost-effective means for reducing blood culture contamination rates to levels of <1.0%.
“
Gary Doern, Ph.D., (ABMM)
Professor Emeritus, Department of Pathology
University of Iowa Carver School of Medicine
Former Editor in Chief Journal of Clinical Microbiology
Lead Author CMR Multi-Discipline Consensus Manuscript
Clinical Performance Guarantee
Every Steripath device is backed by our Clinical Performance Guarantee. Reduce blood culture contamination rates at your hospital by at least 50%, or get your money back.
(Additional terms and conditions may apply)
We’re on a mission to improve the diagnostic accuracy and timeliness of sepsis test results.