Impact of reduced incubation times on culture and susceptibility testing of urine cultures incubated in the BD Kiestra ReadA Compact incubators.

We determined the impact of reducing incubation times for urine cultures incubated in BD Kiestra ReadA Compact incubators. Urine samples (n = 348) were inoculated to solid media, incubated in the ReadA Compacts and processed at 12, 15, and 18 h. Colony size and identification by MALDI-TOF, growth, semi-quantitation, Vitek and disk diffusion susceptibilities from cultures incubated at 12 and 15 h were compared to 18 h. There was no impact on MALDI-TOF performed after 12 and 15 versus 18 h of incubation. Interpretation for 99% of urine cultures was identical at 15 and 18 h. There was no major or very major error for VitekII or disk diffusion testing with >94% and >92% overall agreement for Gram-negative and positives organisms, respectively. Therefore, reducing the maximum incubation times of primary cultures incubated in the ReadA Compacts from 18 h to 15 h did not impact outcomes.