Magnolia Medical Partners with Hospitals to Mitigate Critical Constraints Driven by COVID-19

Reducing false positive sepsis tests creates capacity for critical PCR lab equipment and increases bed availability

News provided by

Mar 18, 2020, 09:00 ET

SEATTLE, March 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Magnolia Medical announced today its pledge to partner with hospitals nationwide to address critical constraints associated with COVID-19. As part of the program, Magnolia will provide complimentary Steripath^® Gen2 Initial Specimen Diversion Device^®training, education and initial product inventory to reduce false positive diagnostic results for sepsis.

False positive sepsis tests consume critical and constrained hospital resources. An average of 20% to over 50% of all positive sepsis tests are likely false positive due to blood culture contamination.¹ These positive sepsis tests require further processing which in many hospitals requires use of the same PCR lab equipment needed for current and emerging COVID-19 testing.

Additionally, patients with false positive sepsis test results remain in the hospital an average of two additional days^2,3, representing a significant burden on hospitals facing bed capacity constraints. This unnecessary time in the hospital subjects vulnerable populations to the risks of hospital-acquired infections and conditions (including COVID-19) which can extend hospital stay further, compromising patient safety, health and outcomes.

CDC recommendations call for antibiotic administration to all severely ill patients within one hour of arrival at the hospital, as it is difficult and often impossible to differentiate between COVID-19, bacterial pneumonia, and sepsis.⁴

Accurate diagnostic testing to rule out or confirm sepsis is more important now than ever to enable clinicians to rapidly deescalate unnecessary antibiotic treatment, or to provide more accurate targeted antibiotic therapy.

Steripath is the only FDA-cleared device indicated to reduce blood culture contamination.⁵ Steripath Gen2 delivers up to a 97% positive predictive value for blood cultures, representing greater than 60% improvement in accuracy over standard methods.^6,7

"Accurate sepsis testing is always critical, but even more so today as our healthcare system faces a capacity crisis for laboratory processing and bed availability for the most severely ill patients affected by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Greg Bullington, CEO of Magnolia Medical. "Steripath can have a direct impact lessening these constraints, ensuring that precious hospital resources are not unnecessarily consumed based on false positive sepsis tests."

For more information on how Steripath can help to mitigate critical hospital constraints driven by COVID-19 visit: www.steripath.com/covid-19.

Magnolia Medical Technologies develops, manufactures and markets innovative blood and bodily fluid collection devices to facilitate significant improvements in the accuracy, consistency and predictability of critical laboratory tests. Magnolia Medical invented and patented the initial specimen diversion technique (ISDT^™) and device (ISDD^®) for blood culture collection and contamination prevention. The company has amassed an intellectual property portfolio including more than 70 issued method, apparatus and design patents with more than 50 additional patent applications pending. For more information, visit www.magnolia-medical.com.

Snyder, S., et al, Clinical Biochemistry (2012)
E. Skoglund, et al. Journal of Clinical Microbiology (2019)
B. Geisler, et al. Journal of Hospital Infection (2019)
CDC. Interim Clinical Guidance for Management of Patients with Confirmed Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Indicated to reduce blood culture contamination when contaminants are present, compared to standard method controls without diversion.
Zwang, O., et al. Journal of Hospital Medicine (2006)
M. Rupp, et al. Clinical Infectious Diseases (2017)

SOURCE Magnolia Medical Technologies