MADISON, MS – December 14, 2021 - MHA Solutions and Healthcare Providers Insurance (HPIC) are collaborating with Magnolia Medical Technologies to further increase patient safety and improve outcomes across the state of Mississippi.
Magnolia Medical Technologies is a Seattle-based medical technology company that develops and markets innovative blood culture collection devices that improve the accuracy and predictability of diagnostic test results for sepsis. Its award-winning Steripath® Initial Specimen Diversion Device® is the only FDA 510(k)-cleared device platform indicated to reduce blood culture contamination for sepsis testing.1
“The goal of MHA Solutions is to provide the best products and services possible for our members and clients,” said Eddie Foster, President and CEO of MHA Solutions. “Steripath, with its clinically proven results, aligns with our goal. We are excited to join Magnolia Medical in advancing to a higher standard of care for sepsis diagnostic accuracy by providing new technology solutions and practice change to our members that can prevent patient harm due to false-positive blood cultures. We look forward to sharing the results of the HPIC-sponsored Steripath pilot with our membership of over 100 hospitals.”
This new relationship provides educational resources and programs to all Mississippi Hospital Association (MHA) members on best practices in blood culture collection and the role of solutions, including Steripath, in virtually eliminating blood culture contamination at the source. Two MHA member hospitals – King’s Daughters Medical Center in Brookhaven and Neshoba General Hospital in Philadelphia – have been selected to participate in an HPIC-sponsored pilot program to demonstrate the impact of Steripath on reducing blood culture contamination. The goal of the pilot is to establish a standardized blood culture collection and contamination prevention model that may be followed by other MHA members, improving testing accuracy for bloodstream infections, like sepsis, and preventing unnecessary, avoidable health risks and harm to the residents of Mississippi that may stem from a misdiagnosis.
MHA Solutions and Magnolia Medical will also be sponsoring roundtable discussions with executives from MHA member hospitals on the national movement to a 1% blood culture contamination rate from the current national average benchmark of 3%. Blood culture is the gold standard for detecting bloodstream infections, including sepsis. An estimated 58 million are performed each year. A reduction in blood culture contamination from 3% to 1% equates to approximately 1.2 million fewer patients impacted by a potential misdiagnosis of sepsis.
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1 Indicated to reduce the frequency of blood culture contamination when contaminants are present, compared to standard method controls without diversion.