Economic Value of the BioFire BCID2 Panel

Bloodstream infections and sepsis exact an enormous burden on patients, clinical laboratories, and healthcare organizations. In a systemic review, researchers estimated that the United States sees roughly 582,000 cases of bloodstream infections each year.¹ Additionally, somewhere between 72,000 and 85,000 people die shortly following a bloodstream infection.¹

Sepsis has an even greater impact. The US records more than 1.7 million cases of sepsis every year, and it’s the leading cause of death in hospitals—in fact, in 2014 sepsis accounted for 270,000 deaths in the US.² Of those who survive, 50 percent will experience long-term physical or psychological effects.³

Not only is sepsis the leading cause of death in hospitals, it’s also the top source of hospital costs, accounting for $62 billion in acute sepsis hospitalization and skilled nursing costs.⁴ A study analyzing data from 1997 – 2011 found the mean cost per sepsis-related hospital stay was nearly double that of the average across all other conditions.⁵

Syndromic infectious disease testing provides quick, comprehensive results that enable clinicians to make optimal treatment decisions faster, which may help hospitals realize savings on costly bloodstream infection and sepsis hospitalizations.

Challenges with Traditional Testing

Fast, actionable results are crucial for appropriately treating bloodstream infections and sepsis. These infections are serious and can become fatal. With sepsis, for example, every hour of delay in initiation of effective antimicrobial therapy translates into a 7.6% decline in patient survival.⁶

Because bloodstream infections are serious and deadly, clinicians typically start patients on empiric antimicrobial therapy while awaiting lab results. Unfortunately, standard-of-care testing can take up to five days to return results. First, laboratorians must identify an organism in positive blood culture, then they must conduct susceptibility testing to determine if the organism is resistant to any antimicrobials.

Meanwhile, the patient may be receiving inappropriate or unnecessary antimicrobials that are not only ineffective in treating the illness, but also carry the risk of side effects.

The Syndromic Approach

Syndromic testing offers a better way to approach blood infection diagnostics. Unlike traditional blood culture tests, the BIOFIRE BCID2 Panel is both fast and comprehensive, returning results in about an hour from positive blood culture. This blood culture identification panel detects a broad menu of 43 possible targets, including Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria, yeast, and 10 antimicrobial resistance genes—all in one test.

Multiplex PCR testing with the BIOFIRE BCID2 Panel can shorten the time to pathogen identification, giving clinicians the information they need to make timely and optimal treatment decisions. Compared to traditional blood culture testing, the original BioFire^® FilmArray^® Blood Culture Identification (BCID) Panel demonstrated a 70% reduction in time from blood culture collection to organism identification.⁷

Healthcare Cost Savings

Fast answers on a comprehensive blood culture identification panel can help clinicians do what’s best for the patient while supporting the goals of antimicrobial stewardship. The BioFire BCID Panel was shown to shorten time to optimal therapy by 39 hours compared with traditional blood infection testing methods.⁸

Faster optimal therapy can translate into cost savings on hospital stays and treatments. Use of the BioFire BCID Panel led to a 2-day decrease in average antibiotic duration, as well as a 2-day decrease in average length of hospital stay.⁸

Identification of coagulase-negative staphylococci contaminants with the BioFire BCID Panel, combined with antimicrobial stewardship interventions, resulted in estimated cost savings of $30,000 per 100 patients.⁹

Benefits for the Lab

BioFire molecular diagnostics are simple and easy to incorporate into the laboratory workflow. The BIOFIRE BCID2 Panel takes only two minutes of hands-on technician time to prepare the pouch. Results are available in about an hour after the pouch is inserted into the BioFire^® FilmArray^® System module. The system automatically generates a report detailing whether each target was detected on the blood culture identification panel.
Syndromic testing with the multiplex PCR BIOFIRE BCID2 Panel enables labs to provide comprehensive results, fast. The BioFire System minimizes manual data entry and helps simplify test ordering. Additionally, the BioFire System is scalable, helping labs customize throughput and streamline workflow. The BioFire^® FilmArray^® Torch can run up to 264 blood culture samples a day.

An Accessible Investment

The BioFire BCID2 Panel can aid in cost savings to your institution. Determining the cost of onboarding and running the BioFire BCID2 Panel depends on several factors. To get exact pricing information tailored to your institution, request a quote or a free demonstration of the BioFire System.

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Learn more about the economic benefits of syndromic testing.

References

Goto M and Al-Hasan MN. Clin Microbiol Infect 2013; 19: 501–509.
Rhee C, et al. JAMA. 2017;318(13):1241-1249.
Sepsis Alliance. Sepsis Fact Sheet. Accessed on 28 Apr 2022. Retrieved from: https://www.sepsis.org/education/resources/sepsis-information-guides/
Buchman TG, et al. Crit Care Med. 2020;48(3):302-318.
Pfuntner A, Wier LM, Steiner C. Costs for Hospital Stays in the United States, 2011: Statistical Brief #168. 2013.
Kumar A, et al. Crit Care Med 2006;34:1589–1596.
MacVane SH, et al. J Clin Microbiol. 2016;54:2476-2484.
Chiasson JM, et al. J Pharm Pract. 2021 Apr 5:8971900211000686.
Pardo J, et al. Clinical and Economic Impact of Antimicrobial Stewardship Interventions with the FilmArray® Blood Culture Identification Panel. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2016;84(2):159–164.