Blood Cultures Minimum Volume

[walkerdandl 10]

We use BacT/Alert and followed new CAP requirement to "have a system for monitoring blood cultures for adequate volume and feeding back the results to blood collectors".

We performed random volume checks throughout 2014 using 5ml - 10ml as an acceptable volume for adults - knowing that 5ml is too little (should be 7ml I would think). Manufacturer only says "10ml is optimal" - no minimum or maximum. Do others feel the same? Even at 5ml only 75% met the criteria. (Of course most of the failures were nurse draws.) As a result of this I want to include this monitor as a 2015 QA monitor with more indept monitoring and followup to get this to improve.

Others doing this check and are you getting similar results? How do you document that you provided feedback to the "blood collectors"?

 

[MatthewStark 0]

We have a similar issue at a Children's Hospital.  Often we can't get 7 ml just for a single draw (or even 5).  We have been attempting to wiegh the bottles to calculate % and give clinicians feedback.

[macarton 40]

We have a bottle at the receiving desk containing red dye that has the minimun and maximum fill levels marked with a sharpie on the bottle.  We check each bottle and ask for recollects if not adequate.