Impact of Implementation of BacT / Alert Virtuo on Blood Culture Time to Positivity in Sepsis Patients

Abstract

Sepsis affects millions of people around the world each year, and accounts for a significant number of deaths in hospital intensive care units (ICU). Timely diagnosis is key to decreasing morbidity and mortality. Time to positivity (TTP) for blood culture bottles incubated in the BacT/Alert Virtuo instrument was compared to the BacT/Alert 3D. TTP was significantly shorter with the Virtuo (median 16.2 h) than 3D (median 21.1 h; P < 0.001). Switching from 3D to Virtuo significantly improved TTP in this multicenter hospital setting study. IMPORTANCE Sepsis affects millions of people around the world each year, and accounts for a significant number of deaths in hospital intensive care units (ICU). Timely diagnosis is key to decreasing morbidity and mortality. One important element of sepsis diagnosis is organism detection using blood cultures. In this study, we examined the impact of implementing the BacT/Alert Virtuo automated blood culture detection system on time to positivity in an ICU patient population at a multicenter hospital setting.