Webinar: The Identification and Mitigation of False-Positive CLABSIs

Overview:

Your team has invested in education, insertion bundles, and maintenance bundles — and you’re still seeing CLABSI SIR scores that put you at risk of HAC, Readmission, and VBP penalties. There’s evidence on how blood culture contamination (BCC) is quietly inflating CLABSI rates, and in many hospitals this is flying under the radar of CLABSI causation.

A newly published study of over 362,000 blood cultures across 52 U.S. hospitals in 19 states found that every 1% increase in blood culture contamination is correlative and causative of a 9% increase in CLABSI rates.¹

This webinar breaks down why false-positive CLABSIs happen, how BCC and unrecognized contamination with skin-dwelling pathogenic organisms directly undermine the bundle work you’re already doing, and what proven interventions can reduce contamination — and your penalty risk — while also increasing operational efficiencies and patient quality outcomes.

Speakers:

Kelsey Poole, MPH, CIC
Infection Preventionist
PeaceHealth

• Kelsey Poole is a CIC-certified infection preventionist at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver, Washington with a Master of Public Health. Over the past seven years, she has led infection prevention, healthcare epidemiology, quality improvement, and outbreak response initiatives focused on reducing healthcare-associated infections and improving patient safety. Kelsey is passionate about partnering with frontline caregivers to translate complex data into practical, evidence-based solutions that drive meaningful change.

Laura Gillim, MSN, RN, CIC, CPHQ
Manager of Infection Prevention
Owensboro Health Regional Hospital

• Laura Gillim has been a registered nurse since 1997 and has dedicated the past 20 years of her career to healthcare quality and patient safety. She currently serves as Manager of Infection Prevention for a multi-hospital health system in western Kentucky. Her expertise includes infection prevention, quality improvement, regulatory compliance, and patient safety initiatives across acute and ambulatory care settings.

Tammy Johnson, RN, BS, CPM
Associate Vice President, National Clinical Strategy & Customer Relations
Magnolia Medical Technologies, Inc.

• Tammy Johnson is a healthcare executive with over 30 years in nursing, 14 as a nurse leader, whose focus has been on raising standards of care for patients, optimizing outcomes and decreasing healthcare spend by first preventing patient harm. Through presentations at APIC, AVA, INS, SCASM, ENA, AHA, AONL, and other various hospital associations and organizations, Tammy has championed awareness of evidence-based, metric-driven improvement processes and programs that result in sustainable, positive outcomes for patients.

1. Fabre V, et al. J Clin Microbiol. 2025;63(8):e00530-25