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Disruptions in Availability of BD BACTEC Blood Culture Bottles Situation Summary

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Disruptions in Availability of BD BACTEC Blood Culture Bottles Situation Summary

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Disruptions in Availability of BD BACTEC Blood Culture Bottles Situation Summary

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September 3, 2024

Disruptions in Availability of BD BACTEC Blood Culture Bottles: Current Situation

Updated August 6, 2024

What to know

Users may experience delays in supply of BD BACTECTM blood culture media bottles over the coming months.

Assess your situation and develop plans and options to mitigate the impact of the shortage on patient care.

This page will be updated when new information or resources become available. Check back often for updates.

Current situation

Current Updates‎

New Guideline - American Society for Microbiology - Managing Blood Culture Shortages Guideline August 5, 2024

New Journal Article - Every Crisis is an Opportunity: Advancing Blood Culture Stewardship During a Blood Culture Bottle Shortage

Now Available - IDSA Clinician Call Recording: BD BACTEC Blood Culture Bottle Shortage - Hosted in partnership with ASM, SHEA and PIDS

CDC is alerting healthcare providers, laboratory professionals, healthcare facility administrators, and state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments of a critical shortage of Becton Dickinson (BD) BACTECTM blood culture media bottles.

This shortage has the potential to disrupt patient care by leading to delays in diagnosis, misdiagnosis, or other challenges in the clinical management of patients with certain infectious diseases.

Healthcare providers, laboratory professionals, healthcare facility administrators, and state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments affected by this shortage should immediately begin to assess their situations and develop plans and options to mitigate the potential impact of the shortage on patient care.

Health Advisory‎

CDC Health Alert Network (HAN): Disruptions in Availability of BD BACTECTM Blood Culture Bottles

Recommendations

Institute best practices to reduce unnecessary blood cultures and, when needed, contamination events or instances in which an inadequate blood volume is cultured. Ensuring the right samples are collected from the right patients, the right way the first time, could help mitigate negative impacts of the shortage.

Recommendations for Healthcare Providers and Phlebotomists

Implement practices to optimize the use of blood cultures at your facility.

Take steps to prevent blood culture contamination.

Ensure that the appropriate volume is collected when collecting blood for culture.

Laboratory Professionals and Healthcare Facility Administrators

Determine the type of blood culture bottles your laboratory or facility uses and whether this shortage will impact you.

Implement practices to optimize the use of blood cultures at your facility. Doing so may be helpful even for facilities not affected by the shortage.

Take steps to prevent blood culture contamination. Contamination can negatively affect patient care and may require the collection of more blood cultures to help determine whether contamination has occurred.

Ensure that the appropriate volume is collected when collecting blood for culture. Underfilling bottles decreases the sensitivity to detect bacteremia/fungemia and may require additional blood cultures to be drawn to diagnose an infection.

If your laboratory or facility will be impacted by the bottle shortage, determine whether you have alternative options for blood cultures (e.g., working with a nearby facility or sending samples out to a laboratory not affected by the shortage).

Monitor current and future supplies of blood culture bottles at your laboratory or facility and report any potential shortages or interruptions to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

If your facility will be impacted by the bottle shortage, convene a group of local laboratory and clinical experts to determine how a limited supply of blood culture bottles will be prioritized for use in your facility.

Recommendations for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Health Departments

Contact hospitals and laboratories in your jurisdiction that serve acute care patients (i.e., patients who are hospitalized or visiting an emergency department) to determine what type of blood culture bottles they use and whether this shortage will impact them.

Focus the following interventions on impacted facilities and laboratories:

Provide education on the supply shortage, optimal use of blood cultures, and mechanisms for reporting supply chain shortages or interruptions and suspected adverse events to the FDA.

Facilitate communication between laboratories and facilities willing to assist others in need, either by sharing supplies of available blood culture bottles or working out arrangements for nearby laboratories using continuous monitoring blood culture systems unaffected by the shortage to perform blood cultures on behalf of the affected laboratory or facility.

Report Supply Chain Challenges

FDA encourages health care providers to report any supply chain challenges or suspected adverse events experienced with the blood culture media bottles.

Submit information on potential shortages or interruptions in availability to [email-masked].

Submit voluntary reports through MedWatch, the FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting program.

Additional Resources

Open Forum Infectious Diseases - Every Crisis is an Opportunity: Advancing Blood Culture Stewardship During a Blood Culture Bottle Shortage

New Guideline - American Society for Microbiology - Managing Blood Culture Shortages Guideline August 5, 2024

IDSA Clinician Call: BD BACTEC Blood Culture Bottle Shortage - Hosted in partnership with ASM, SHEA and PIDS 7/23/24

Disruptions in Availability of BD BACTEC Blood Culture Media Bottles - Letter to Health Care Providers | FDA

Medical Device Shortages List | FDA

Preventing Adult Blood Culture Contamination: A Quality Tool for Clinical Laboratory Professionals

Lab Quality

Apr. 23, 2024

Blood Culture Contamination: An Overview for Infection Control and Antibiotic Stewardship Programs Working with the Clinical Laboratory (cdc.gov)

FS-BloodCulture-508

Mar. 2, 2023

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Guide to Utilization of the Microbiology Laboratory for Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases: 2024 Update by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) ∗ | Clinical Infectious Diseases | Oxford Academic (oup.com)

Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM)_Blood Culture Stewardship.pdf

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September 3, 2024

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Content Source:

National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID)

Sources

Fabre V, Carroll KC, Cosgrove SE. Blood Culture Utilization in the Hospital Setting: a Call for Diagnostic Stewardship. J Clin Microbiol. Mar 16 2022;60(3):e0100521. doi:10.1128/JCM.01005-21

Fabre V, Klein E, Salinas AB, et al. A Diagnostic Stewardship Intervention To Improve Blood Culture Use among Adult Nonneutropenic Inpatients: the DISTRIBUTE Study. J Clin Microbiol. Sep 22 2020;58(10)doi:10.1128/JCM.01053-20

Temkin E, Biran D, Braun T, Schwartz D, Carmeli Y. Analysis of Blood Culture Collection and Laboratory Processing Practices in Israel. JAMA Netw Open. Oct 3 2022;5(10):e2238309. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.38309

Fabre V, Davis A, Diekema DJ, et al. Principles of diagnostic stewardship: A practical guide from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Diagnostic Stewardship Task Force. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. Feb 2023;44(2):178-185. doi:10.1017/ice.2023.5

Woods-Hill CZ, Fackler J, Nelson McMillan K, et al. Association of a Clinical Practice Guideline With Blood Culture Use in Critically Ill Children. JAMA Pediatr. Feb 1 2017;171(2):157-164. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.3153

Wang MC, Zhou KJ, Shay SL, et al. The impact of a blood-culture diagnostic stewardship intervention on utilization rates and antimicrobial stewardship. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. May 2024;45(5):670-673. doi:10.1017/ice.2023.265

Seidelman JL, Moehring R, Gettler E, et al. Implementation of a diagnostic stewardship intervention to improve blood-culture utilization in 2 surgical ICUs: Time for a blood-culture change. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. Apr 2024;45(4):452-458. doi:10.1017/ice.2023.249

Lee A, Mirrett S, Reller LB, Weinstein MP. Detection of bloodstream infections in adults: how many blood cultures are needed? J Clin Microbiol. Nov 2007;45(11):3546-8. doi:10.1128/JCM.01555-07

Fabre V, Sharara SL, Salinas AB, Carroll KC, Desai S, Cosgrove SE. Does This Patient Need Blood Cultures? A Scoping Review of Indications for Blood Cultures in Adult Nonneutropenic Inpatients. Clin Infect Dis. Aug 22 2020;71(5):1339-1347. doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa039

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Disruptions in Availability of BD BACTEC Blood Culture Bottles Situation Summary

HAIs

Health Department HAI/AR Programs

Health Care Providers

Cleaning in Global Healthcare Settings

Reducing Risk: Surfaces in Healthcare Facilities

Introduction to the Patient Notification Toolkit

View All

Public Health

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