Quality Improvement in the Coagulation Laboratory: Reducing the Number of Insufficient Blood Draw Specimens for Coagulation Testing.

Objectives: To report the efforts of our laboratory to reduce quantity-not-sufficient (QNS) specimens via several methods and to directly measure the effect of expired collection tubes on the amount of blood that can be drawn.

Methods: We tracked the number of QNS venous-blood specimens per month received by our coagulation laboratory from March 2008 to December 2012. Interventions involved communications that informed nurses and phlebotomists how to avoid drawing QNS specimens and floor sweeps, in which laboratory staff searched for and removed expired vacuum-based blood-collection tubes (VBCTs) from inpatient hospital floors.

Evaluation of a plastic nonvented aerobic blood culture bottle for use with the BacT/ALERT microbial detection system.

The current BacT/ALERT SA (BTA SA) aerobic blood culture bottle is made from glass, does not require venting, and contains a liquid emulsion sensor (LES). Its performance has been shown to be equivalent to that of the vented standard aerobic culture bottle. A further-improved version of the BTA SA bottle, designated the BacT/ALERT plastic SA (BTA PSA) culture bottle, is made from clear plastic to prevent breakage, does not require venting, and contains a modified LES (LES 2) to reduce the possibility of false positives.

Clinical comparison of nonvented aerobic BacT/Alert blood culture bottle and standard aerobic bottle for detection of microorganisms in blood.

The current BacT/Alert standard aerobic (VA) blood culture bottle was redesigned and designated a nonvented aerobic (NVA) culture bottle; this bottle does not require venting. A total of 3,873 sets of blood samples for culture were obtained from adult patients with suspected bacteremia or fungemia. The NVA bottle showed performance equivalent to that of the VA bottle for recovery and speed of detection of microorganisms from blood without the need for venting the bottle.

Comparative in vitro and bactericidal activity of oxazolidinone antibiotics against multidrug-resistant enterococci.

Increasing resistance among enterococci poses a considerable therapeutic problem. In this study, we evaluated the comparative in vitro activity of two investigational oxazolidinone antibiotics, eperezolid and linezolid, versus clinical isolates of multidrug-resistant enterococci. One hundred isolates (16 Enterococcus faecalis, 69 E.

Epidemiologic evaluation of antimicrobial resistance in community-acquired enterococci.

Fecal samples from 200 consecutive patients admitted to a community hospital yielded 107 enterococci. High-level gentamicin resistance occurred in 10 (14%) of the Enterococcus faecalis isolates. Ampicillin resistance occurred in two (3%) of the E.