నియోనాటల్ బయాలజీ జర్నల్

నైరూప్య

A Quality Initiative to Improve the Reliability of Blood Cultures Drawn in Neonates with Suspected Sepsis

Pradeep Kumar Velumula, Dhruv Gupta, Amit Sharma, Basim Asmar, Sanket Jani, Nithi Fernandes, Roopali Bapat, Sanjay Chawla

Background: A delay or a false negative diagnosis of sepsis in neonates may be associated with serious morbidity and mortality.

Objectives: To improve optimal blood culture volume by 25% from baseline over two months and sustain the improvement for 10 consecutive months.

Methods: Data on blood culture volumes and medical knowledge of the staff on sepsis was collected in the pre-and post-intervention phase. During Intervention phase, we conducted multiple Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles that included education, accountability, feedback, support, and awareness during the intervention phase.

Results: A total of 287 blood culture samples were analyzed; 114 samples during the pre-intervention and 173 samples in the post-intervention phase. The target proportion of BC samples with optimal volume each month was achieved, and the results sustained for 10 consecutive months.

Conclusion: The study emphasizes the importance of simple and realistic interventions to achieve and sustain collection of adequate blood culture volumes in neonates.