Impact of infectious disease consultation on patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia at a Japanese tertiary hospital: A retrospective observational study.

Several studies across various countries have shown the benefit of infectious disease consultation in patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB). However, the effect of such consultation services in patients with SAB in Japan remains unknown. Accordingly, we aimed to examine the effectiveness of infectious disease consultation in SAB patients at an accredited hospital in Japan. We hypothesized that infectious disease consultation in SAB patients is associated with lower in-hospital mortality. We identified patients with SAB between January 2011 and January 2014. SAB was defined as the presence of at least one set of positive blood culture samples. The outcomes of patients who did and did not receive bedside infectious disease consultation were compared. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. We identified 183 patients with SAB. Eighty-seven patients (48%) received infectious disease consultation services, while 96 (52%) did not. There were no significant differences in in-hospital mortality between the infectious disease consultation and control groups (15.0% vs. 23.0%, p = 0.20). Logistic regression analysis showed that bedside infectious disease consultation (odds ratio, 0.23; 95% confidence interval, 0.08-0.69; p = 0.01) was independently associated with lower in-hospital mortality. In conclusion, bedside infectious disease consultation may help reduce the in-hospital mortality in patients with SAB in Japan.