In the healthcare industry, the utilization of blood culture, a vital diagnostic tool for infectious diseases, has significantly been impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is limited data available detailing how the pandemic affected the rate of blood culture utilization. In an endeavor to bridge this information gap, a study was conducted examining electronic health records from the Shanghai Changzheng hospital between January 2014 and October 2023. It was deduced that the pandemic has had a profound impact on the utilization of blood cultures.
Investigating a total of 23,761 inpatients with a fever of 39.4 degrees Celsius or above, it was noted that hospital blood culture utilization trends initially increased from 2014 and then declined significantly following the onset of the pandemic. The effect was tangibly seen in the slope of the blood culture utilization rate, changing from an increase of 0.31% per month in the pre-COVID-19 era to a decrease of 0.30% per month during the pandemic. This accounted for a relative cumulative effect of -12.55% at the end of the study. This downturn suggests that 407 inpatients did not have blood cultures taken during the pandemic, marking a substantial deviation from previous trends.
The disruption brought by the pandemic had lasting repercussions on the routine practice of blood culture utilization. This analysis provides insights into the need for targeted intervention measures to encourage the optimal utilization of blood cultures. Future examination into blood culture utilization rate within China’s unique pandemic response context is also necessary, considering the lack of currently available research.
To appraise the impact of the pandemic on blood culture utilization, an interrupted time-series analysis was employed. By building segmented regression models, the researchers could conclusively remark that the COVID-19 pandemic has indeed caused a lasting change in diagnostic practices.
Amid the pandemic, healthcare systems were strained with demand for resources and strenuous modifications in clinical decision-making. The overlapping symptomatology of COVID-19 and bloodstream infections complicated diagnosis and possibly impacted the execution of blood cultures.
Though there is evidence of a growing trend in blood culture utilization rate from 2014 to 2023, the increase stalled during the pandemic and did not return to the pre-pandemic rate following the pandemic’s end. The analysis thus substantiates that the pandemic has had a lasting effect on diagnostic practices in healthcare. Targeted intervention measures are imperative to restore the right utilization of blood cultures.
Source: https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-025-10444-1