What we do and don’t know about the shortage of blood culture bottles Brittany Trang By Brittany Trang Aug. 2, 2024

https://www.statnews.com/2024/08/02/blood-culture-bottles-shortage/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_hqG359iwm6eV6vDpdPA6KGVm9B6WJRxgSUsKMP12lNuNIFnzlghBNSTTKTUpHw5z0uROCBYqsTRotnTPqVjk8NiTwqA&_hsmi=318390621&utm_content=318390621&utm_source=hs_email Last week, we brought you news of a nationwide shortage of blood culture bottles. What the heck are those? Well, they’re tools that allow hospital labs to identify the bacteria causing bloodstream infections like sepsis and give patients the right life-saving antibiotics. And the bottles are specific to which brand of analyzing struments labs use, so it’s almost impossible for hospitals to switch. BD — the manufacturer that supplies about half the nation’s labs with these bottles — says it is struggling to keep up with demand since its single supplier of plastic bottles is having issues “more complex than the supplier originally communicated.” Some hospitals are getting 30% or less of their normal shipments. I talked to hospital execs and lab managers about how this shortage is affecting patient care; what questions they have for the FDA, CDC, and CMS; and how to fix the ongoing supply chain problems that have only gotten worse since the pandemic. https://www.statnews.com/2024/07/23/blood-culture-bottle-shortage-cdc-alert-becton-dickinson/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--LQL0I63okOvMU9CvBe8NoqF2cjpIRYpKXl3sEjIBYCN96t7KYr8c_Oe8UdVAxpyD8PtXfQrTx9ujZbGavZ3lsIFT0Zw&_hsmi=318390621&utm_content=318390621&utm_source=hs_email