Multicenter study on blood culture quality and turnaround time of patients in intensive care unit in Guangdong Province, China

PURPOSE: We evaluated the quality of blood culture (BC) in critically ill patients in 19 tertiary comprehensive teaching hospitals in Guangdong Province, and analyzed the factors affecting the quality. METHODS: BC specimen data of 37,552 critically ill patients from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 were screened, providing a total of 137,560 BC bottles. The quality indicators of BCs were analyzed. RESULTS: The positive and submission rates of BCs in critically ill patients varied among different hospitals. Of the most common and clinically significant isolates in positive BCs, there were 10 bacterial strains (n = 5572) and 1 fungal strain (n = 617), with median turnaround times for antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST) of 2.86 (2.19-3.62) days and 3.72 (3.00-4.58) days, respectively. BC specimen collection mainly occurred between 06:00 and 24:00, with reception and loading peaking from 08:00 and 24:00. Gram-staining and AST reports were concentrated between 10:00 and 10:59, and organism identification reports were between 09:00 and 09:59. CONCLUSION: There were differences in the quality of BC in critically ill patients among different hospitals and BCs had significant delays at night during the pre-analytical stage and specimen reporting times. These indicate the need for further optimization of related workflows.