Simulation to optimize the laboratory diagnosis of bacteremia.

ABSTRACT: Blood cultures are central to the management of patients with sepsis and bloodstream infection. Clinical decisions depend on the timely availability of laboratory information, which, in turn, depends on the optimal laboratory processing of specimens. Discrete event simulation (DES) offers insights into where optimization efforts can be targeted. Here, we generate a detailed process map of blood culture processing within a laboratory and use it to build a simulator. Direct observation of laboratory staff processing blood cultures was used to generate a flowchart of the blood culture laboratory pathway. Retrospective routinely collected data were combined with direct observations to generate probability distributions over the time taken for each event. These data were used to inform the DES

SUBMITTER: Gerada A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11537109 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature