Do rapid diagnostic methods improve antibiotic prescribing in paediatric bacteraemia?

Aim Rapid blood culture pathogen identification facilitated by matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionisation time‐of‐flight and GeneXpert has the potential to improve antibiotic prescribing. This study investigates the impact of these rapid diagnostics on the timeliness of effective and optimal antibiotic prescribing in paediatric patients with bacteraemia. Methods A single centre retrospective cohort study was performed comparing paediatric bacteraemia cases pre‐ and post‐rapid diagnostic implementation. Primary outcomes were the proportion of cases receiving, and median time to administration of effective and optimal antibiotics from blood culture collection. Secondary outcomes included hospital length of stay, intensive care unit admissions, and all‐cause mortality. Results A total of 255 bacteraemia cases were subject to final data analysis, 129 in the control cohort (pre‐implementation of rapid diagnostics) and 126 in the rapid diagnostics cohort. The median time to effective (2.3 vs. 1.8 h, P = 0.20) and optimal therapy (44.4 vs. 39.1 h, P = 0.66) did not differ significantly between the cohorts. There was also no significant difference found in the number of cases reaching effective (120 vs. 116, P = 0.77) and optimal therapy (66 vs. 62, P = 0.76), length of stay (7 vs. 9 days), all‐cause mortality (1.6 vs. 1.6%) and number of intensive care unit admissions (20 vs. 15). Conclusion The implementation of rapid diagnostics, when used in isolation, resulted in no improvement in antibiotic prescribing or patient clinical outcomes. To be effective, rapid diagnostics must be coupled with active real‐time antimicrobial stewardship promotion, de‐escalation or modification based on early laboratory results.