More than a dozen pediatric ICUs were able to sustain reductions in blood culture rates during a 2-year period following a diagnostic stewardship effort aimed at safely improving ordering practices, researchers reported in JAMA Pediatrics.
The initial study was part of the Testing Stewardship for Antibiotic Reduction collaborative, nicknamed Bright STAR. It collected data from PICUs and measured the change in rates of blood cultures per 1,000 patients each month when screening for bacterial infections.
“Bright STAR was a 14-site collaborative project that we did from 2017 to 2020,”