Blood Culture Collection Best Practices for Laboratory Professionals 

This CME/CMLE-accredited, case-based activity is designed to help phlebotomists and other clinical laboratory team members increase their knowledge, skills, and competence in applying best practices for adult blood culture collection in clinical laboratories. Through a series of ten 5-minute cases developed by a multidisciplinary team, you will gain a greater understanding of current guidelines to improve blood culture collection practices to maintain aseptic technique, reduce blood culture contamination rates, ensure patient safety, and contribute to timeliness and accuracy of patient diagnosis and treatment. 

This case-based learning includes the following topics: 

• Appropriate use of aerobic and anaerobic blood culture bottles 
• Recommended blood volume for adult blood culture collection 
• Proper disinfection procedures prior to blood culture collection 
• Best practices to reduce risk of blood culture contamination 
• Blood culture contamination rate calculation and monitoring 

The activity offers 1.0 CME/CMLE credit.

Note: While these best practices represent the current gold standard for blood culture collection, they may need to be modified based on institutional guidelines in light of supply disruptions in blood culture media bottles or other consumables.

Faculty/Authors

Sachin Gupta, PhD, MBA, MLS(ASCPi)MB, LSSBB, CPHQ
Scientific Director at the Center for Quality and Patient Safety, American Society for Clinical Pathology
 
Debbie Oliver, BBA, RPT, CPI
Clinical Education Specialist-Lab, Certified Phlebotomy Instructor, BayCare Health System

Physician's Competency: Patient Care, Medical Knowledge, Practice-Based Learning and Improvement 

CME/CMLE Credit: 1.0
Estimated Completion Time: 1.0 hour
Format: Online educational activity

Credit Designation Statement

The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education (CME) for physicians.

The ASCP designates this activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

ASCP designates this activity for a maximum of 1.0 CMLE credit.  This activity meets CMP and state re-licensure requirements for laboratory personnel.

For questions regarding CME credit, please contact ASCP Customer Service at 1-800-267-2727, during normal business hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Time

Method of Participation

To complete the activity and receive credit, the participant must complete all questions in the activity. CME certificates will be provided online.

Commercial Support 

This project was made possible by Cooperative Agreement number NU47OE000107 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the American Society for Clinical Pathology and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC.  

Instructions

To claim CME/CMLE credit for the exercise, do the following:

1. Review the Technical Considerations.
2. Click Go to Content and click the first module of the course.
3. Complete the Demographic Survey.
4. Complete the Pre-Test.
5. Review the Educational Activity.
6. Complete and submit the Post Exam. You will have a maximum of three attempts to obtain the required score. You will be notified if you have met the credit requirements after each attempt.
7. Submit the course Evaluation.
8. Enter the maximum number of credits offered and click Claim CME/CMLE to register credit.

Upon completion of this activity, you will be able to:

• Outline step-wise best practices for adult blood culture collection

• Improve workflows to mitigate risk of blood culture contamination 

• Calculate blood culture contamination rate

• Understand the value of tracking and providing feedback on blood culture contamination rates