Table 1

Number of admissions and total and positive blood cultures during each study period in General Hospital of Tripolis, Greece (16/05/2000–15/05/2005).


Hospital admission period


2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2001–2005 (total)
p-value
Hospitalized patients
12,625
12,655
13,559
13,835
14,396
67,070
< 0.001
Number of blood cultures obtained
406
483
650
763
904
3,206
< 0.001
Ratio of admissions to blood cultures obtained
31:1
26:1
21:1
18:1
16:1
21:1

Positive blood cultures (proportion from blood cultures obtained)
46 (11.3)
48 (9.9)
71 (10.9)
88 (11.5)
120 (13.3)
373 (11.6)
0.39

Falagas et al. BMC Microbiology 2006 6:41   doi:10.1186/1471-2180-6-41