Table 2.
Details of blood cultures and clinician-reported documentation
| Total n = 987 |
Birth weight >1500 gramsa n = 720 |
VLBW & culture obtained ≤7 days n = 107 |
VLBW & culture obtained >7 days n = 160 |
p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clinician-reported total volume per order, n (%)b | |||||
| 2 mL documented and 2 bottles sent | 807 (81.8) | 617 (85.7) | 86 (80.4) | 104 (65.0) | <0.001 |
| 1 mL documented and 1 bottle sent | 124 (12.6) | 66 (9.2) | 15 (14.0) | 43 (26.9) | <0.001 |
| Documented <1 mL per bottle sent | 30 (3.0) | 18 (2.5) | 1 (0.9) | 11 (6.9) | 0.006 |
| Missing documentation | 26 (2.6) | 19 (2.6) | 5 (4.7) | 2 (1.3) | 0.24 |
| Site for specimen draw, n (%) | |||||
| Phlebotomy | 787 (79.7) | 664 (92.2) | 18 (16.8) | 105 (65.6) | <0.001 |
| Peripheral arterial line | 8 (0.8) | 2 (0.3) | 1 (0.9) | 5 (3.1) | |
| Umbilical line | 145 (14.7) | 53 (7.4) | 85 (79.4) | 7 (4.4) | |
| Peripherally inserted central catheter | 47 (4.8) | 1 (0.1) | 3 (2.8) | 43 (26.9) | |
| Bottles sent, n (%) | |||||
| Aerobic-Anaerobic pair | 822 (83.3) | 625 (86.8) | 88 (82.2) | 109 (68.1) | <0.001 |
| Aerobic/Anaerobic alone | 135 (13.7) | 70 (9.7) | 16 (15.0) | 49 (30.6) | |
| Missing documentation | 30 (3.0) | 25 (3.5) | 3 (2.8) | 2 (1.3) | |
| More than 2 attempts at phlebotomy, n (%) | 98/787 (12.5) | 83/664 (12.5) | 4/18 (22.2) | 11/105 (10.5) | 0.38 |
| Missing documentation | 20/787 (2.5) | 20/664 (3.0) | 0 | 0 | |
| Orders growing any organism, n (%) | 61 (6.2) | 10 (1.4) | 3 (2.8) | 48 (30.0) | <0.001 |
| Contaminants | 7/61 (11.5) | 5/10 (50.0) | 1/3 (33.3) | 1/48 (2.1) | <0.001 |
| CoNS (not treated as contaminant) | 10/54 (18.5) | 1/5 (9.3) | 1/2 (50.0) | 8/47 (17.0) | 0.13 |
Abbreviations: VLBW – very low birth weight, CoNS – Coagulase negative staphylococci
a
All blood culture orders for infants with birth weight >1500 grams were drawn at ≤7 days after birth except 10 orders (among 9 infants) drawn >7 days.
b
Assessment of inoculate volume adequacy based on documented note, e.g. 2 mL and 2 bottles sent, the assumption was that each bottle contained ≥1 mL; if 1.8 mL sent in 2 bottles, then categorized as <1 mL per bottle.