Evaluating Clinical Prediction Rules for Bacteremia Detection in the Emergency Department: A Retrospective Review.

Background: Bacteremia is a major cause of morbidity. Blood cultures are the gold standard for diagnosing bacteremia.

Objective: To compare previously published clinical decision rules for predicting a true positive blood culture (bacteremia) in the emergency department.

Clean the skin: Reducing blood culture contamination in the emergency department.

Objective: To determine whether blood culture contamination (BCC) rates could be decreased in the ED by an educational programme.

Methods: Educational intervention focusing on a 1-min venepuncture cleaning time and providing a larger chlorhexidine alcohol swab. BCC rates were examined retrospectively 12-month pre-, and 9-month post-intervention.