A Retrospective Report of a Multi-hospital Health System’s Response to Mitigate the 2024 Worldwide Shortage of Blood Culture Media and Maintain Standard-of-Care Testing

Context.—: The Becton Dickinson BACTEC blood culture media bottle shortage led hospitals to create a mitigation strategy to conserve bottles while ensuring a high quality of care. Objective.—: To describe how our existing framework of teams was able to quickly pivot to implement conservation strategies without negatively impacting patient care. Design.—: A team implemented various mitigation measures based on current inventory, which included education, leveraging electronic medical record guidance and alerts with evidence-based information on appropriate ordering, alternative sources of supply, and real-time dashboards to inform next steps. Results.—: Implementation of educational efforts and alerts resulted in more than 22 000 blood cultures avoided in 6 months, with an increase in blood culture positivity rates by 25%. We did not see any adverse events that impacted the quality of patient care. We observed cost savings of nearly $200 000 in 2024 with these measures. Conclusions.—: Handling widespread shortages in situations of single suppliers requires rapid assembly of key stakeholders with decision-making authority and support of executive leadership. Existing frameworks of experienced teams quickly assessed the situation, worked on mitigation measures, predicted future challenges, and implemented alternatives to ensure patient care was not disrupted.