Comparison of pharmacist-directed management of multiplex PCR blood culture results with conventional microbiology methods on effective and optimal therapy within a community hospital

Abstract

Multiplex PCR combined with a pharmacist-driven reporting protocol was compared to the standard of care within a community hospital to evaluate initial changes after notification of a positive blood culture. The intervention group demonstrated decreased times to changes in antimicrobial therapy (P 0.0081), increased changes to optimal antimicrobial therapy (P 0.013), and decreased vancomycin use for coagulase-negative staphylococcus contaminants (P 0.01) with multiplex PCR implementation and pharmacist intervention.