As physician champion for the Central Line Acquired Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI) Action Committee, I want to remind providers to use the "Blood Cultures x 2 and Fever Workup Panel" order in Epic when blood cultures need to be drawn as part of a fever assessment. Please remember to not only order peripheral blood cultures x 2, but also perform a complete fever workup including UA with culture if indicated, sputum culture and CXR, wound cultures and any other site/body fluid cultures if clinically relevant as included in the aforementioned Epic order panel.
We had three CLABSIs within the last year on one of the medical/surgery wards. For at least two of the episodes there were serious questions raised as to the validity of the CLABSIs but we were in a sense "stuck" with ascribing the positive blood cultures to the patient's central line due to the absence of other elements of the fever workup. Thank you for your attention to this matter.