Shortage of BD BACTEC Blood Culture Bottles

On July 10, 2024 the Medical Device Shortages List was updated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to include BD BACTEC Blood Culture Bottles. Blood cultures are an important diagnostic tool in many patient presentations but have also historically been overused.

We aim to understand how hospitals and patient care have been affected by this shortage.

How has your healthcare facility been affected by the national BD blood culture bottle shortage? My hospital has not been affected by the national shortage at this point My hospital has limited blood culture bottles available My hospital has no blood culture bottles available I’m not sure how my hospital has been affected What steps has your facility taken to mitigate the shortage?    [select all that apply below] No changes to normal practice at this time Publish algorithms surrounding best practice uses Use guidance/algorithms from other institutions Limit access to ordering (i.e. require ID or microbiology input) Place warning in EMR when attempting to order (e.g. best practice advisory) Use single blood culture sets (instead of 2 sets) Restrict follow up blood cultures Obtain blood culture bottles from other hospitals Switch to alternative blood culture detection method Limit use of blood culture bottles for non-blood specimen incubation Not sure How has the shortage impacted your management of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia? How has the shortage impacted management of fever in inpatients and those evaluated in the ER? Please select the location of your clinical practice: State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico Canada Mexico Other Please select your facility type: Facility type Community Non-university teaching University VA hospital or DOD City/county/public Children's hospital Cancer facility Outpatient only Other Any final comments about the blood culture bottle shortage:

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