Clinicians have the responsibility of ensuring that new, evidence-based practices are incorporated into patient care, advancing practices to address patient issues. This pertains not only to clinical care decisions, but also to processes and techniques that are followed when performing a procedure in support of diagnostic testing.
One critical diagnostic test, the blood culture, which is the standard for diagnosing bacteremia and fungemia that may lead to sepsis, is unfortunately fraught with controllable (e.g. touchpoint contamination during supply assembly and prep) and uncontrollable factors (e.g. skin residing organisms) that may compromise result integrity, leading to a false-positive blood culture outcome. Nearly half of all positive blood cultures are wrong, impacting patient care and quality. These patients are subjected to unnecessary, prolonged treatment with antibiotics that puts them at risk for developing antibiotic-related complications and infections. They also experience extended lengths of stay – according to the National Quality Forum (NQF), blood culture contamination results in nearly 1,000,000 additional hospital days each year.
In this webinar, we will illustrate the criticality of diagnostic accuracy and the associated cost of error. We will apply an evidence-based blood culture collection bundle that has been proven to be effective in reducing contamination events, supporting antimicrobial stewardship efforts, and optimizing patient care quality and outcomes. Most importantly, attendees will discover how to employ change management, implementation science, and quality improvement principles to achieve sustained compliance and desired outcomes with these new evidence-based practices.
Presentation topics include:
- Review healthcare quality pillars, the state of diagnostic stewardship and antimicrobial resistance.
- Discuss recent revisions to blood culture collection recommendations.
- Explain why improved safety and quality standards must jump from paper to practice for patients to benefit from intended outcomes.
- Construct outcome and safety assessments that approximate adoption impact when comparing present practice with best-practice methodology for blood culture sampling.
- Employ Implementation Science and Quality Improvement principles when choosing and initiating new evidence-based practices.
- Use Project Management, Change Management and Continuous Improvement practices to sustain evidence-based practice change and quality patient outcomes.
Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025: 11:00 a.m.- noon (PT)
Tammy Johnson, RN, BS, CPM
Associate Vice President Clinical Strategy and Customer Relations
Magnolia Medical Technologies
Tammy is a healthcare executive with over 30 years in nursing, 14 as a nurse leader, whose focus has been on raising standards of care for patients, optimizing outcomes and decreasing healthcare spend by first preventing patient harm. Through presentations at APIC, AVA, INS, SCASM, ENA, AHA, AONL, various hospital associations and other organizations, in addition to an invitation to address the Presidential Advisory Council Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Washington, DC, Tammy has championed awareness of evidence-based, metric-driven improvement processes and programs that result in sustainable, positive outcomes for patients. Tammy holds degrees in nursing, business, and health care management.
HQI is an approved continuing education (CE) provider by the California Board of Registered Nursing and will provide CHPSO members an opportunity to earn CEs. Provider Number CEP16793 for 1 contact hour.
Please contact CHPSO at info@chpso.org if you have any questions.