BLOOD CULTURES COLLECTION
A Quality Improvement Project to Improve the Adherence to Best Practices in the Order, Collection and Analysis
PROJECT SUMMARY
Blood cultures are one of the most important yet tricky blood test that nurses routinely obtain from patients. Of crucial importance for the subsequent management of the patient is the timing, location and method to obtain such cultures. Survey of physicians and nurses in our EDs demonstrated that there were misconceptions, misunderstanding and suboptimal processes being practiced. Through multi-faceted education approaches and changes to the Electronic Patient Record ordering system for nurses, we sought to improve the ordering and collecting techniques for blood cultures.
PROJECT LEADS
Sahand Ensafi
Team members: Oliver van Praet, Joe Choi, Sherri Broome, Paula Cleiman, Jojo Leung, Leah Watson
Term of project: July 2014 – June 2016