"According to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines, the maximum acceptable percentage of contaminated blood culture in any healthcare facility is 3%" - "The acceptable blood contamination rate benchmark is 2-3%y with rates ranging from 1% to 9%."- style="font-size: 1.04761904761905em; font-family: Times New Roman, Times, serif">"While target rates for contamination have been set at 2 to 3%, actual rates seem to vary widely between institutions, from as little as 0.6% to over 6%" -Blood culture contaminationoBlood culture remains an important diagnostic tool to identify the causative agent of bloodstream infection (BSI) as well as to direct the definitive therapy. Blood culture contamination has been a common problem for decades which continues to be the cause of a diagnostic confusion and frustration for the clinicians and laboratory personnel alike. Prevalence of pathogens causing BSI, and their antibiotic susceptibility pattern do help to develop local antimicrobial guidelines.oOn receiving positive blood culture result, the clinicians should establish whether the isolated organism represents a clinically significant infection or a false positive result of no clinical significance. False positive blood cultures are associated with increased length of hospital stay, inappropriate initiation of antibiotics, additional laboratory testing and increased healthcare cost.oResearch has found that it is virtually impossible to have a contamination free rate (0%) in the modern clinical settings. However, the contamination rate between microbiology laboratories varies, from 0.96%-6%. According to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines, the maximum acceptable percentage of contaminated blood culture in any healthcare facility is 3%,oFactors associated with blood culture contamination include, but are not limited to, poor technique and procedure used to collect blood, lack of dedicated phlebotomists, improper skin antisepsis.">