Introduction: Securing medical supplies is crucial to healthcare system security. On June 11, 2024, Becton Dickinson, a major supplier of blood culture vials, reported supply delays, and health authorities issued guidelines to reduce the use of these vials. To assess resilience to logistics disruptions, this study investigates how this vital shortage affected the implementation of blood culture testing in Japanese medical institutions. Methods: The data source was the DPC (Diagnosis Procedure Combination) database from October 2021 to September 2024, obtained from hospitals participating in the Quality Indicator/ Improvement Project (QIP) of Kyoto University. This dataset includes all records of medical procedures performed in the participating hospitals, including blood culture testing. An Interrupted Time Series Analysis (ITSA) was conducted to assess the effects of the vial shortage and usage reduction recommendations on blood culture testing. Results: A total of 886,511 blood culture test opportunities from 142 acute care hospitals were included and analyzed. The number of blood culture tests performed reduced to 88.2 % (95% CI: 86.8%-89.6%) after the supply shortage announcement in Japan. The decline was more pronounced in outpatient settings and small hospitals with less than 199 beds (first quartile), with reductions to 77.2 % (74.1 %-80.4 %) and 69.5 % (61.6%-78.5%), respectively. These results are provisional, as data collection is still ongoing. Conclusion: The supply shortage significantly impacted blood culture testing in Japan, particularly in smaller hospitals, which may be more vulnerable to supply disruptions. Further research is required to understand how this decrease in blood culture testing affects patient outcomes, particularly for those with infectious diseases. Understanding the patterns of practice change could provide valuable insights for mitigating future supply crises.
Okada et al. (Sun,) studied this question.