A Cluster-randomized Cross-over Trial Evaluating the Comparative Effectiveness of Three Skin Antiseptic Interventions

Blood Culture Contamination: A Cluster-randomized Cross-over Trial Evaluating the Comparative Effectiveness of Three Skin Antiseptic Interventions

Background: Contaminated blood cultures result in unnecessary antibiotic use, increased length of stay, and additional laboratory tests, all of which increase healthcare costs. While the optimal skin antisepsis agent for reducing blood culture contamination is not known, the cost of various agents differs substantially.

Objective: To determine the relative rates of blood culture contamination for 3 skin antisepsis interventions - 10% povidone iodine aqueous solution (PI), 2% iodine tincture (IT) and 2% chlorhexidine gluconate in 70% isopropyl alcohol (CHG) - when used by dedicated phlebotomy teams to obtain peripheral blood cultures in adult non-ICU medical and surgical patients.

A group-randomized crossover trial was conducted to test the null hypothesis of no difference in blood culture contamination rates among 3 antiseptic skin preparations. The sequence of 3 different antiseptic treatments was randomly assigned to 3 separate hospital floors, therefore in this trial cross-over occurred at the hospital floor level (not the individual patient level).

Also, it is possible for subjects to have multiple blood culture sets obtained during the study. Thus, the number of blood culture sets will not equal the number of unique subjects in the study.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patient on general medical, surgical, and cardiology floors
• Receipt of a peripheral blood draw for blood culture collection
• Blood draw performed by phlebotomy team

Exclusion Criteria:

• None