Surviving Sepsis Campaign

TIMING OF BLOOD CULTURES

Definition

Collecting blood cultures prior to giving antibiotics allows clinicians to tailor their choice of medications. Initial broad-spectrum antibiotics can be changed to an appropriate spectrum drug. Timely and appropriate antibiotics have been shown to decrease mortality in a variety of infectious conditions.

Compliance with this Sepsis Resuscitation Bundle element is defined as the percent of patients presenting with severe sepsis and/or septic shock who had blood cultures collected prior to broad-spectrum antibiotic administration.

Numerator	Number of patients who had blood cultures collected before broad-spectrum antibiotic administration following presentation with severe sepsis and/or septic shock
Denominator	Number of patients presenting with severe sepsis and/or septic shock

Goal

Increase blood culture collection prior to broad-spectrum antibiotic administration to 100 percent of cases.

Blood Cultures Obtained Prior to Antibiotic Administration

Sample Graph

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