MALDI-ToF short incubation identification from blood cultures is associated with reduced length of hospitalization and a decrease in bacteremia associated mortality

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of MALDI-ToF identification and rapid short incubation MALDI-Tof identification protocol on patient care compared to conventional identification. By using a retrospective review we assessed the impact of a rapid Bruker MALDI-Tof identification protocol. Overall there was a 16.76-hour reduction in time to identification of the pathogen after the introduction of MALDI-TOF identification in 2013 (P<0.0001) and a further 15-hour reduction (P<9.37 E-05) after implementation of the short incubation MALDI-TOF identification protocol in 2014. Patients received appropriate therapy 20.25 hours earlier (P<0.002) in 2014 compared to the conventional identification group in 2012. Overall length in the patients needing optimization of antibiotic treatment was reduced by 6.87 days (P<0.042). In 2014 outcomes between the patients needing a change in their antibiotic compared to the patients where the empirical therapy was considered to be optimal were similar with respective difference in length of stay being reduced from 4.72 days (P<0.031) to 1.77 days (P<0.71) and an associated reduction in the absolute mortality risk of 3.79%. The all-cause mortality rate was twice as high in the group pre-implementation of the short incubation MALDI-TOF identification with an associated survival benefit in this patient population when 26 patients were treated. Rapid short incubation MALDI-ToF identification of bacterial pathogens in blood cultures is associated with a reduction in length of stay and mortality risk.