The challenge of preventing blood culture contamination
Why is preventing blood culture contamination so challenging?
While training and education can help, it will not effectively solve the challenge of contamination. Blood culture contamination happens easily and often due to these common factors:
Alternative Diversion Methods
Other techniques and methods have been attempted, but they all fall short.
Manual Diversion Limitations
Passive Diversion Device Limitations
When it comes to diversion effectiveness, volume matters.
Less than 0.5mL
Diverting less than 0.5mL of blood has not proven to be effective for significant reductions in blood culture contamination.1,3
1.5-2.0mL
The most practical and effective volume based on independent clinical studies to reduce blood culture contamination.¹
2.0mL or more
Diminishing contamination reduction improvement when drawing over 2mL of blood.¹
Comparing Diversion Methods
| Key Product Features | Manual Diversion Kits | Passive Diversion Devices | Steripath® Gen2 |
|---|---|---|---|
No assembly required (touch-point contamination risk) |  |  | |
Controlled clinical studies published in national peer-reviewed medical journals | | | |
Adjustable pressure for hypovolemic/hypotensive patients | | | |
One-Step Diversion™: audible “click” diversion confirmation | | | |
| Cannot bypass diversion | | | |
Published studies demonstrating effectiveness for use on IV start draws | | | |
Money-Back Clinical Performance Guarantee | | | |
Meet Dr. Patton,
The founding father of initial specimen diversion for blood cultures
In 2006, Dr. Patton designed a clinical study to test the effectiveness of Initial Specimen Diversion Technique (ISDT™), an innovation that he conceived earlier in his career. The results of the study were the basis for the seminal study on initial specimen diversion, published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
Dr. Patton patented initial specimen diversion for blood culture collection, both the technique, ISDT™, and the technology, ISDD®. His mission in co-founding Magnolia Medical Technologies was to eliminate the patient harm resulting from unnecessary antibiotic treatment due to false-positive blood cultures.
Make an impact at your hospital by reducing blood culture contamination
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The Problem
Learn about the consequences of false-positive blood cultures
Steripath Gen2
Blood culture collection & contamination prevention system
The Benefits
The clinical & economic impact of reducing blood culture contamination
The Evidence
Explore the independent clinical study results using Steripath
References
1) R. Patton, et al; Innovation for Reducing Blood Culture Contamination: Initial Specimen Diversion Technique. Journal of Clinical Microbiology (December 2010)
2) Data on file
3) Diversion below 0.5mL has not been demonstrated in controlled clinical studies published in national peer-reviewed medical journals.