Clinical impact of blood cultures contaminated with coagulase-negative staphylococci at an academic medical center.
Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2011 Jun;32(6):623-5
Authors: van der Heijden YF, Miller G, Wright PW, Shepherd BE, Daniels TL, Talbot TR
Of all blood cultures positive for coagulase-negative staphylococci collected in 1 year at an academic hospital, 100 were selected randomly for review and designated true positives or contaminated. For the 85 patients whose cultures were determined to be contaminated, chart abstractions revealed substantial unnecessary antibiotic administration, additional laboratory tests and procedures, and hospital readmissions.
PMID: 21558778 [PubMed - in process]