Blood Culture Stats
Organisms
Prevention Practices
Collection
100
This inpatient unit had the highest contamination in 2024

C2MS

100

Coagulase negative staphylococci

 Normal skin flora

100

Best way to prevent infections 

Hand hygiene

100

The correct order bottles should be collected 

Green/teal then Orange

200

Percentage of blood cultures that are contaminated yearly within U.S.

3-5%

200

Viridans streptococci  

Mouth, respiratory/GI/female genitourinary tract

200

Scenario: Patient is very talkative

Wear a mask (patient and RN)

200

The guideline used during blood culture collection, that is placed in every collection kit

Selfie sheet

300

Number one reason for blood culture contamination

Improper skin prep

300

Clostridium perfringens

Feces and intestines

300

Scenario: Hygea wipe is still dirty after first initial cleanse

Grab another wipe and clean again

300

Appropriate timeframe for scrubbing bottle tops 

15 seconds

400

Total amount of contaminations for 2025

134

400

Escherichia coli

Intestines/feces

400

Scenario: Patient touched the site or moved their arms after you have already cleaned

Start over from the beginning 

400

The Kurin device is found on these units

ICUs, Oncology(4W) and Medsurg (2SU)

500

Total amount of blood culture contaminations yearly in the U.S.

1.4 million 

500

Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Water and soil

500

To reduce false positives in blood cultures, this is the recommended number of sets to collect from separate venipuncture sites.

Two sets

500

Consequence of overfilling blood culture bottles

False positives