UT-Harris
County Psychiatric Center
Nursing
Procedures
Laboratory
Harris County Psychiatric Center: Office Administration
A primary concern of blood collection for testing is to prevent contamination of the blood culture by skin organisms
venipuncture, blood culture, test
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Date of
Last Review: 4/07
A primary concern of the blood collector for this test
is preventing contamination of the blood culture by skin organisms.
Procedure:
Do not touch the venipuncture site after it has been
prepared. Do not put unsterile gauze
over venipuncture site until after blood is drawn.
Apply the tourniquet to the patient's arm and select a
site for the venipuncture. Remove the tourniquet.
To prepare the patient's arm, cleanse the site with a
betadine swab in a circular motion beginning at the center of the site selected
for venipuncture. Allow the betadine
solution to air dry.
Cleanse the tops of blood culture collection bottles
with betadine.
Reapply the tourniquet.
Obtain blood with a 10 ml vaccutainer and a 22 gauge or
20 gauge needle, pushing out all the air from the vaccutainer before drawing
blood.
Change needles and inject the blood into the tops of the
previously prepared anaerobic (yellow) x1 and aerobic (blue) blood culture
bottles x1 and denote whether obtained from (R) Right or Left (L) arm.
Invert the bottles gently and label the usual patient
name, date, and time of collection.
After the patient's arm has stopped bleeding remove the
betadine solution by wiping with a clean alcohol prep.
Indicate on the requisition and on the bottles which
culture (number) you have drawn if a series of blood cultures have been
ordered.
Blood cultures may not be ordered any less than one hour
apart. If the doctor desires cultures
more often, he must consult the supervisor of Microbiology of the testing
laboratory.
Related
Standards:
JCAHO PE 1.4, PE
1.13