2026 Eastern States Conference

Authors
Clarissa Santori, PharmD; Benjamin Miller, PharmD 
 
Learning Objective  
Audience members will be able to describe how rapid molecular blood culture diagnostics influence the timing of targeted antimicrobial therapy in patients with positive blood cultures at a community hospital 
 
Background/Objective
Bloodstream infections are among the most common and serious infections among hospitalized patients. While early appropriate antimicrobial therapy is crucial to survival, this should be balanced with good antimicrobial stewardship to minimize unnecessary broad-spectrum therapy.
 
Methods 
This was a retrospective, quasi-experimental pre–post cohort study conducted at a community hospital. The study compared outcomes before and after implementation of the BioFire BCID2 panel.  
The intervention consisted of utilizing BCID2 on all blood cultures with a positive gram stain, implemented with provider education regarding result interpretation. Adult patients (≥18 years) with at least one positive blood culture during the study period were eligible. Patients who died or were transitioned to hospice within 72 hours of blood culture collection were excluded, as were those who were discharged within 48 hours.
The primary outcome was time from blood culture collection to targeted antimicrobial therapy, defined as the first antimicrobial regimen consistent with organism identification and susceptibility results. Secondary outcomes included total antimicrobial days of therapy, broad-spectrum antimicrobial days of therapy, hospital length of stay, and included incidence of C. difficile infection. 
 
Results
TBD 
 
Conclusions
TBD