Blood culture sampling rate in hospitalised children as a quality indicator for diagnostic stewardship

Transitioning to Automated Microbiologic Era: Blood Culture Isolates in Children and Adults in Federal Teaching Hospital in Gombe, North East Nigeria 2016-2020

“…While recommendations regarding the optimal sampling rate of blood cultures in children are not available [30], the blood culture sampling rate in this study is low and is even more so for adults compared to children. This is much lower than reports from South Africa [31] [32] and Gambia [33].…”

“…This is much lower than reports from South Africa [31] [32] and Gambia [33]. Studies have reported much higher blood culture rates [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]. While there is paucity of reports on sampling rates for blood culture, sampling of about 100 to 200 blood culture sets per 1000 patient-days is recommended as the target range for blood culture rates [35].…”

Trends in Bacterial Blood Culture Isolates and Resistance in Children in Two Microbiologic Eras from a Tertiary Health Facility in North East Nigeria

“…The tenfold increase in the Open Journal of Medical Microbiology break-even cost of Bactec blood culture had significantly negative impact on blood culture uptake in our facility. Blood culture per patient admission [29] [30] declined substantially during the Bactec era undermining the public health significance of etiologic diagnosis of acute febrile illness in a setting where clinical malaria is over-diagnosed, non-prescription antibiotics are prevalent and empiric prescription antibiotic by physicians is the standard clinical practice [16]. There is paucity of reports on the impact of automated microbiology methods on service uptake in Nigeria and in the sub-region.…”