BrighT STAR at Johns Hopkins Children's Center

The BrighT STAR Learning Health Community includes children’s hospitals across the United States and internationally with a common mission to develop and disseminate programs that safely reduce unnecessary testing and treatment and provide high-value care to critically ill children.

Considerations to Reduce Pediatric Blood Cultures

BD Diagnostics, Inc. has reported an interruption in the production of BACTEC pediatric and adult aerobic and anaerobic blood culture bottles through September 2024. While blood cultures are the primary diagnostic test to diagnose bloodstream infections, many are obtained when the suspicion of a bloodstream infection is low. We encourage everyone to be proactive and help preserve our blood culture bottle supply.

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New Blood Draw Protocol Could Minimize Risk for Critically Ill Children

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have found that fostering cross-departmental collaboration and offering guidelines to clinicians helped reduce the number of unnecessary blood draws on some of the smallest and most vulnerable patients.

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Expert Consensus Statements from the BrighT STAR Respiratory Collaborative

Endotracheal aspirate culture ordering vary by institution. Decision support tools help to both standardize practices and reduce unnecessary testing. Newly published consensus statements help guide when to obtain respiratory cultures for hospitalized patients with artificial airways.

group shot at the 2023 consensus conference

BrighT STAR Crosses International Borders

The BrighT STAR Learning Health Community has reduced over-testing, decreased antibiotic use and prevented catheter-associated bloodstream infections. A recent site visit to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool England, helped the team better understand how to tailor the program to an NHS based unit.

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BrighT STAR team at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool, England

BrighT STAR Sustains Reduction in Blood Culture Rates Two Years Later

To help clinicians reduce blood draws for pediatric patients, 14 PICUs across the country took part in the BrighT STAR Collaborative, led by Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

Association of Diagnostic Stewardship for Blood Cultures in Critically Ill Children

Blood culture overuse in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) can lead to unnecessary antibiotic use and contribute to antibiotic resistance. Optimizing blood culture practices through diagnostic stewardship may reduce unnecessary blood cultures and antibiotics.

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Antibiotic Overuse Reduced by Avoiding Unnecessary Blood Draws in Critically Ill Kids

A study of a Johns Hopkins Children’s Center-led quality improvement initiative shows that a unified approach could safely reduce unneeded blood cultures that contribute to antibiotic overuse in pediatric intensive care unit patients.

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