Ensure culturing stewardship: only order blood cultures from a PICC if CLABSI is suspected
Element
Key Institutional Partners
  • Educate staff on when to order blood cultures from lines 
    • When should you do cultures from the line
      • When peripheral blood cultures are positive, and you suspect the line is the source (as a second step)
      • When you suspect that the line is the source because no other sources of infection are apparent
    • Do not perform routine cultures from lines without the above criteria in place
Provider, IR, Vascular Team, Hospital Leadership/Nursing Leadership, QI Department
Educate staff responsible for drawing blood from PICC lines on the appropriate techniques to collect blood cultures 
  • Education on process for how to draw blood from lines is important to avoid false positives and contamination.
  • Consider creating a single team to draw line cultures
  • Consider designating a core group of staff to draw line cultures in order to ensure proficiency and correct practice
Providers, IR, Vascular Access Team, Hospital Leadership/Nursing Leadership, QI Department
Articles/References
National Resources:Presentations:Articles:
Kamboj M, et al. Use of disinfection cap to reduce central-line-associated bloodstream infection and blood culture contamination among hematology-oncology patients. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology 2016
  • Use of alcohol impregnated caps (passive disinfection) resulted in a 34% reduction of hospital acquired CLABSI rates, particularly among high risk patients, and 51-63% reduction in blood culture contamination
Validation Survey
CLABSI Step 5 Validation - Culturing Stewardship.
  • This document includes all of the validation questions associated with this content area to help with collaboration on responses for your hospital. Responses to the validation questions should be entered in to the linked document and recorded to monitor progress.