Benefits of Adding a Rapid PCR-Based Blood Culture Identification Panel to an Established Antimicrobial Stewardship Program

Studies have demonstrated that the combination of antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASP) and rapid organism identification improves outcomes in bloodstream infections (BSI) but have not controlled for the incremental contribution of the individual components. Hospitalized adult patients with blood culture pathogens on a rapid, multiplex PCR-based blood culture identification panel (BCID) that included 19 bacterial species, 5 Candida spp., and 4 antimicrobial resistance genes were studied over sequential time periods in a pre-post quasiexperimental study in 3 groups in the following categories: conventional organism identification (controls), conventional organism identification with ASP (AS), and BCID with ASP (BCID). Clinical and economic outcomes were compared between groups. There were 783 patients with positive blood cultures; of those patients, 364 (115 control, 104 AS, and 145 BCID) met inclusion criteria. The time from blood culture collection to organism identification was shorter in the BCID group (17 h; P < 0.001) than in the control group (57 h) or the AS group (54 h). The BCID group had a shorter time to effective therapy (5 h; P < 0.001) than the control group (15 h) or AS group (13 h). The AS (57%) and BCID (52%) groups had higher rates of antimicrobial de-escalation than the control group (34%), with de-escalation occurring sooner in the BCID group (48 h; P = 0.034) than in the AS group (61 h) or the control group (63 h). No difference between the control group, AS group, and BCID group was seen with respect to mortality, 30-day readmission, intensive care unit length of stay (LOS), postculture LOS, or costs. In patients with BSI, ASP alone improved antimicrobial utilization. Addition of BCID to an established ASP shortened the time to effective therapy and further improved antimicrobial use compared to ASP alone, even in a setting of low antimicrobial resistance rates.