bioMerieux's new education campaign, WorkSafe, was developed in response to rising infection rates and sepsis in U.S. hospitals. This site contains resources and educational materials to support best practices in blood culture collection for your labs and infection control personnel. WorkSafe has been designed to easily integrate into any lab to improve specimen collection, transport, storage and disposal.

A growing problem, hospital-acquired infections (HAI) and increasing cases of sepsis, particularly in immuno-compromised patients, account for nearly 90,00 deaths each year. The product training and safety education contained on the site can help reduce the spread of infection in hospitals. Additionally, automation in the field of blood culture is proven to play a significant role in reducing specimen contamination through continuous test monitoring and rapid results.

BacT/ALERT^®,  an automated microbial detection system, is the only system that offers plastic blood culture collection bottles and improves safety at every step. Its lightweight bottles can be sent through pneumatic tube systems without special holders. 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.

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. Keep in mind, disposal of biohazardous waste is charged by the pound, making lightweight plastic more cost-effective than glass.

Below you can request a copy of our educational blood culture collection video and be a part of WorkSafe.