Blood culture is the most important tool for detecting bacteremia in children with
fever. However, contaminated blood cultures have been recognized as a
troublesome issue for decades and continue to be a source of frustration for clinical
and laboratory personnel alike. The purpose of this study was to reduce blood
culture contamination rates after conducting intervention measures during blood
culture collection in patients aged 14 years who visited AL-Quwayiyah General
Hospital, Riadh, KSA. Rate of contamination of blood culture and the causative
bacteria data was obtained from microbiology register in the period from January
2014 to June 2014 (Pre-intervention phase), there were 94 positive cultures. Of
these, 33 (35 %) grew contaminant organisms. The proportion of all blood cultures
obtained during this period that grew contaminant organisms was 33 (4.4%) of 754.
After conducting the intervention measures during the period from August 2014 to
January 2015 (post-intervention phase), there were 49 positive cultures. Of these,
12 (24.5%) grew contaminant organisms. The proportion of all blood cultures that
grew contaminant organisms decreased to 12 (1.7%) of 691 compared to
Preintervention phase contaminated cultures 32 (4.3%) (p < 0.001). Overall,
contamination rates were higher in younger children than in older children, given
the difficulty of performing blood sampling in younger children