Kurin and Crouse Hospital: A Transformative Partnership in Reducing Contaminated Blood Cultures

Kurin, a leader in innovative blood culture collection technology, is celebrating a longstanding partnership with Crouse Hospital. This collaboration marks a new era in clinical advancements, aiming to significantly reduce blood culture contamination (BCC) rates and improve patient care.

Beginning in 2012, Crouse Hospital's initiative to combat contamination saw department-wide education, restricted blood culture draws, and rigorous compliance monitoring. These efforts yielded a modest reduction in contamination rates.

In January 2017, seeking further improvement, the emergency department re-evaluated its blood culture protocol and adopted the Kurin blood culture collection set. Michael Allain, MS, RN, ACNS-BC, CCRN, Crouse Hospital Clinical Nurse Specialist Emergency Services, noted, "We have trialed waste tubes, education, and multiple diversion devices on the market to aid in the further reduction of BCCs. Kurin was the safest and most efficient product, causing no change in blood culture collection practice. With Kurin's advanced technology, we observed significant reductions in contamination rates, from 1.6% to 0.8%. This enhances diagnostic accuracy and, after accounting for product acquisition costs, achieves cost savings of over $185,000 annually for the hospital."

Michael and his team published their outcomes in 2018 utilizing Kurin in the Journal of Critical Nurse Specialists. Following the initial implementation in the emergency department, utilization of Kurin was expanded throughout the institution.

This partnership exemplifies how integrating cutting-edge technology with evidence-based practices can result in outstanding outcomes, even for hospitals meeting standard benchmarks. Crouse's adoption of the Kurin device and ongoing education and compliance underscores a commitment to excellence in healthcare delivery.

Kurin's Chief Commercial Officer, Christine Arme, expressed excitement over the collaboration, stating, "This partnership with Crouse Hospital is a testament to the power of innovation in improving patient outcomes and operational efficiency. We are proud to contribute to such meaningful advances in healthcare."

The synergy between Kurin's technology and Crouse Hospital's dedication to excellence sets a new standard for managing contaminated blood cultures, potentially transforming practices nationwide.

About Kurin:

Kurin® is a privately held, certified minority-owned business dedicated to engineering better healthcare through innovative, cost-effective, clinician-approved technologies. Building on the successful invention, clinical adoption, and corporate acquisition of CUROS™ disinfecting port protectors, Kurin is focusing its depth of experience in medical device engineering, marketing, sales, and service to tackle the persistent and costly fallout of false positive blood cultures. With agile development capabilities and intense customer focus, the Kurin Blood Collection Systems have quickly gained caregiver acceptance, have been proven to sideline skin contaminants during blood culture collection, and have become the market-leading solution for blood culture collection best practice.

About Crouse Hospital:

Today’s Crouse Health reflects a rich history of innovation, visionary leadership and strong community support. As the only independent, locally governed hospital in Syracuse, Crouse has been serving the community and region since 1887. Crouse is licensed for 506 acute-care adult beds and 57 bassinets, and serves more than 23,000 inpatients, 62,000 emergency services visits and more than 600,000 outpatients a year from a 16-county area in Central and Northern New York.

Crouse is a top 10 area employer, with 3,500 employees and a medical staff of more than 900 physicians. Crouse is Central New York's largest provider of maternity care services, delivering 3,800 babies annually, and is the designated regional referral center for high-risk neonatal intensive care (NICU) services for 1,000 premature and critically ill newborns from across the region annually.

This partnership heralds a brighter future for healthcare providers and patients, driven by shared values of innovation and precision.

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"We have trialed waste tubes, education, and multiple diversion devices on the market to aid in the further reduction of BCCs. Kurin was the safest and most efficient product, causing no change in blood culture collection practice."