Criteria for Distinguishing True Bacteremia from Contaminated Blood Cultures

Are you trying to interpret positive blood cultures?

Does the patient have risk factors for sepsis?

Does the patient look septic?

Did the blood culture become positive quickly?

Is there an explanation for slow recovery (antibiotics, small sample, slow growing, etc)?

Is the culture isolate a known pathogen?

Does the patient have risk factors for infection by an organism that is not normally a pathogen?

Has the culture isolated a single organism?

Does the patient have risk factors a polymicrobic infection?

Have cultures collected at different times from different sites given consistent results?