Physician Responsiveness to Positive Blood Culture Results at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Hospital-Is Anyone Paying Attention?

BACKGROUND: Patients presenting with suspected infections are typically placed on empiric broad-spectrum antibiotics. With mounting evidence supporting the efficacy of using the narrowest spectrum of antimicrobial therapy to cover the suspected pathogen, current guidelines recommend decreasing the breadth of coverage in response to culture results both in relation to microbe identification and antibiotic sensitivity.
METHODS: A retrospective chart review of electronic health records at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Minnesota was performed for 208 positive blood cultures with antibiotic spectrum analysis from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. The time of reporting for pathogen identification and subsequent pathogen susceptibilities were compared to the time at which any alterations to antibiotic coverage were made. The breadth of antibiotic coverage was recorded using a nonlinear spectrum score. The use of this score allowed for the reliable classification of antibiotic adjustments as either deescalation, escalation, or no change.
RESULTS: The percentage of cases deescalated was higher in response to physician (house staff or attending physician) notification of pathogen susceptibility information when compared with a response to pathogen identification alone (33.2% vs 22.6%). Empiric antibiotics were not altered within 24 hours in response to pathogen identification in 70.7% of cases and were not altered within 24 hours in response to pathogen sensitivity determination in 58.6% of cases. However, when considering the time frame from when empiric antibiotics were started to 24 hours after notification of susceptibility information, 49.5% of cases were deescalated and 41.5% of cases had no net change in the antibiotic spectrum score. The magnitude of deescalations were notably larger than escalations. The mean (SD) time to deescalation of antibiotic coverage was shorter (P =.049) in response to pathogen identification at 8 (7.4) hours compared with sensitivity information at 10.4 (7) hours, but may not be clinically relevant.
CONCLUSION: Health care providers at the Minneapolis VAMC appear to be using positive blood culture results in a timely fashion consistent with best practices. Because empirically initiated antibiotics typically are broad in spectrum, the magnitude of deescalations were notably larger than escalations. Adherence to these standards may be a reflection of the infectious disease staff oversight of antibiotic administration. Furthermore, the systems outlined in this quality improvement study may be replicated at other VAMCs across the country by either in-house infectious disease staff or through remote monitoring of the electronic health record by other infectious disease experts at a more centralized VAMC. Widespread adoption throughout the Veterans Health Administration may result in improved antibiotic resistance profiles and better clinical outcomes for our nation's veterans.