Assessment of the impact of centralized bioMérieux BACT/ALERT® VIRTUO® blood culture system (VIRTUO) implementation on outcomes in patients with gram-negative bacteremia

Abstract

Background: We evaluated pre- and postimplementation of Virtuo on outcome in patients with gram-negative bacteremia using a quasiexperimental time-in-motion design. Methods: Becton Dickinson BACTEC™ 9000 series (Bactec) (2018) and Virtuo system (2020) were utilized in a decentralized and centralized process, respectively. Data collected in August-December in 2018 and 2020 were analyzed with SPSS (ver 28). Results: For 185 patients in each time period, patient age, gender, length of hospitalization were not different. However, blood culture (BC) volume was significantly lower in 2020 (7.1 ± 2.6 mL) compared to 2018 (8.9 ± 1.9 mL). Time from BC draw and time from pathogen identification (ID) to treatment change were both significantly faster in 2020 (52.9 ± 38.3 hours; 15.1 ± 27.4 hours), compared to 2018 (65.0 ± 46.3 hours; 23.8 ± 33.8), respectively. Conclusions: Replacement of decentralized Bactec with centralized Virtuo, resulted in significant improvement in management of patients gram-negative bacteremia.