The association of infectious diseases consultation and 30-day mortality rates among veterans with enterococcal bacteraemia: a propensity score-matched retrospective cohort study.

Objectives: Infectious disease consultation (IDC) has been associated with improved outcomes in several infections, but the benefit of IDC among patients with enterococcal bacteraemia has not been fully evaluated.

Methods: We performed a 1:1 propensity score-matched retrospective cohort study evaluating all patients with enterococcal bacteraemia at 121 Veterans Health Administration acute-care hospitals from 2011 to 2020. The primary outcome was 30-day mortality. We performed conditional logistic regression to calculate the OR to determine the independent association of IDC and 30-day mortality adjusted for vancomycin susceptibility and the primary source of bacteraemia.

Results: A total of 12,666 patients with enterococcal bacteraemia were included; 8400 (63.3%) had IDC, and 4266 (36.7%) did not have IDC. Two thousand nine hundred seventy-two patients in each group were included after propensity score matching. Conditional logistic regression revealed that IDC was associated with a significantly lower 30-day mortality rate compared with patients without IDC (OR = 0.56; 95% CI, 0.50-0.64). The association of IDC was observed irrespective of vancomycin susceptibility, and when the primary source of bacteraemia was a urinary tract infection, or from an unknown primary source. IDC was also associated with higher appropriate antibiotic use, blood culture clearance documentation, and the use of echocardiography.

Discussion: Our study suggests that IDC was associated with improved care processes and 30-day mortality rates among patients with enterococcal bacteraemia. IDC should be considered for patients with enterococcal bacteraemia.