Stop press: Gram stain appearance and implications ver 2 2020 Ferguson

Documentation!

• Always note down all clinician discussions in a large personal diary or preferably on the electronic pathology record for the patient’s sample if this exists.
• Categorise and record the clinical relevance of the positive culture – a standard template to be shared soon.

Improve blood culture collection practice

• Ensure that your clinicians know how to collect blood cultures correctly – pathology registrars/ residents can get involved with training . See this collection instruction as a guide: Blood culture collection procedure version 3 24 Aug 2019
• Check out this guide before you start a collection training program – Blood culture collection tutorial notes 25 Aug 2019
• Calculate your blood culture contamination rates regularly and identify locations that require followup training (if rate of contamination > 5%)