American Society For Microbiology
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If you must draw BC X 2 from the one and ONLY ONE sight a patient has-what is the minimum time you must wait between the collection of those two cultures?
The importatant issue is not the minimum time between the 2 venipucntures because they can essentially be drawn back-to-back. The important issue is the separate cleansing of the sites. So... if you really can access only ONE site, I would do the first venipunture as normal. Then, once you have achieved adequate hemostasis, begin the second venipuncture as if you had never done the first one, initiating a whole new process of skin antisepsis.
 
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