Last year, bioMérieux launched WorkSafe™, an education campaign to provide labs and infection control personnel with resources and educational materials to support best practices in blood culture collection. WorkSafe is designed to easily integrate into any facility to improve specimen collection, transport, storage, and disposal.
It is no secret that many hospitals are reaching critical levels of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and increasing cases of sepsis, particularly in immuno-compromised patients. Nearly two million patients in the United States get an infection in a hospital every year. Of these, nearly 90,000 people will die as a result of the HAI.1 Healthcare officials are desperate for solutions. Better safety practices and lab automation can help reduce the spread of infection in hospitals.
Automation in the field of blood culture is proven to play a significant role in early detection of positive blood cultures through continuous test monitoring. However, blood culture contamination is a continuous problem. bioMérieux spent the past year taking WorkSafe directly to customers for product training and safety education on BacT/ALERT® 3D, our automated microbial detection system.
bioMérieux’s WorkSafe initiative is designed to provide the tools needed for proper blood culture collection to increase safety and combat rising infection rates, antibiotic resistance and sepsis in hospitals. The campaign includes four phases: collection, testing, culture and care. bioMérieux launched the initiative by providing laboratory professionals with WorkSafe resource kits that included a blood culture collection training video, competency checklist and certification that highlights all four phases of the program.
WorkSafe will teach lab technicians and nursing personnel best practices in all stages of blood culture, from collection to care. The campaign supports the use of plastic blood culture bottles, instead of glass, to decrease the risk of breakage, which can lead to blood and body fluid exposures, and contact with dangerous materials. There are many safety benefits to using plastic instead of glass. For example, the lightweight bottles can be sent through pneumatic tube systems without special holders, without fear of breakage.
Many labs already work with plastic to meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards and to comply with its Bloodborne Pathogens Standard. Glass puncture wounds are among the most common injuries in the medical field, and glass that is contaminated with blood or other potentially infectious materials poses an extreme danger. In most cases, plastic can be easily substituted for glass, therefore, “OSHA makes it clear: using glass in the laboratory when an equivalent plastic alternative is available must be justified in writing.”2
In addition to being break-resistant, plastic weighs one-half to one-third less than glass, offering additional advantages to the lab. Lightweight plastic bottles are easier to carry and put less weight on the phlebotomy tray. Additionally, disposal of biohazardous waste is charged by the pound, making lightweight plastic more cost-effective than glass.
Blood Culture Collection Kit
The WorkSafe collection phase, which launched May 2007, features the bioMérieux Blood Culture Collection Kit, which equips hospital workers with one simple kit to follow best practices for blood culture-collection. Each latex-free kit includes BacT/ALERT® Bottles, Smiths Medical Saf-T Holder® Blood Culture Device, 2” x 2” gauze, alcohol prep pads, bandage, biohazard bag, PDI® Chlorascrub™ 3.15% Chlorhexidine Gluconate Swabstick, folded instruction sheet and tourniquet.
The Blood Culture Collection Kit is a WorkSafe best practice for blood collection. The kit is designed to provide a safer and easier process for blood culture collection that can help minimize collection contamination, minimizing the
risk of false positives.
The kit eliminates the need for nurses or phlebotomists to manually pull loose pieces together for blood culture collection. The kit also contains a disposal bag so biohazardous materials can be properly disposed.
Successful Implementation
WorkSafe has only been available for one year, and it is already helping many labs improve safety and reduce contamination. Marshalltown Medical Lab in Iowa implemented the WorkSafe initiative and started using the Blood Culture Collection Kit last fall. Already,
the kit is proving to be effective
and efficient.
Prior to the Blood Culture Collection Kit, the lab in Marshalltown used SPS tubes to transfer blood samples to the BacT/ALERT 3D, creating the opportunity for contamination. The kit eliminates the need for tubes and saves time for the technician. The reduction in contamination is important to the hospital because of rising costs associated with longer hospital stays.
Industry Recognition
bioMérieux is the proud recipient of a 2008 Clinical Creative Communication Award from the Diagnostic Marketing Association
for the Blood Culture Collection Kit. The kit was recognized for the education and training it provides and won in the category of Professional Relations.
WorkSafe™ Survey Results
Customers logged on to www.biomerieux-usa.com/worksafe and took a survey to determine what issues they were experiencing with blood culture contamination. Shown below are key findings from the 121 BacT/ALERT® customers who responded to the survey.
Seventy-two percent were from an urban setting, with 71 percent from not-for-profit facilities, and 66 percent were from hospitals of 250 beds or less. Less than half were CAP-accredited, and only 45 percent had participated in the Institute for Healthcare Improvements (IHI)’s $5 Million Lives Campaign.
Phlebotomists drew 79 percent of the blood cultures, and nurses only drew 15 percent. Less than half of the respondents have a pediatric facility.
It was rewarding to learn that 90 percent of the respondents collected blood from two different sites and used a two-bottle set for each draw.
Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus was the main contaminant.
When surveyed, the majority of the respondents wanted video/DVD training, understandable literature and online training.
The bioMérieux WorkSafe initiative is on target to help facilities reduce blood culture contamination. A second survey will be distributed to these survey respondents to determine contamination rates before and after WorkSafe implementation.
Best-selling author, professional speaker and safety consultant Terry Jo Gile, the Safety Lady®, has helped thousands of laboratorians create safety-savvy laboratories. Her book, Complete Guide to Laboratory Safety – Second Edition, is considered the consummate safety reference tool that is specific for clinical laboratories. Contact Terry Jo at www.safetylady.com.
1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. www.cdc.gov.
2 Ernst J., Dennis. MT(ASCP), Center for Phlebotomy Education, Inc., Coalition for Phlebotomy Personnel Standards. Richard Fairfax of OSHA talks about the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard. MLO 2003; 35(2):32-34.
It is no secret that many hospitals are reaching critical levels of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and increasing cases of sepsis, particularly in immuno-compromised patients. Nearly two million patients in the United States get an infection in a hospital every year. Of these, nearly 90,000 people will die as a result of the HAI.1 Healthcare officials are desperate for solutions. Better safety practices and lab automation can help reduce the spread of infection in hospitals.
