Journal of Neonatal Biology

Abstract

A Quality Initiative to Improve the Reliability of Blood Cultures Drawn in Neonates with Suspected Sepsis

Pradeep Kumar Velumula*, Dhruv Gupta, Amit Sharma, Basim Asmar, Sanket Jani, Nithi Fernandes, Roopali Bapat and Sanjay Chawla

Background: A delay or a false negative diagnosis of sepsis in neonates may be associated with serious morbidity and mortality.

Objectives: To improve optimal blood culture volume by 25% from baseline over two months and sustain the improvement for 10 consecutive months.

Methods: Data on blood culture volumes and medical knowledge of the staff on sepsis was collected in the pre-and post-intervention phase. During Intervention phase, we conducted multiple Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles that included education, accountability, feedback, support, and awareness during the intervention phase.

Results: A total of 287 blood culture samples were analyzed; 114 samples during the pre-intervention and 173 samples in the post-intervention phase. The target proportion of BC samples with optimal volume each month was achieved, and the results sustained for 10 consecutive months.

Conclusion: The study emphasizes the importance of simple and realistic interventions to achieve and sustain collection of adequate blood culture volumes in neonates.

Published Date: 2022-08-02; Received Date: 2022-06-29