Blood culture (BC) efficiency is critical for the diagnosis of bloodstream infection (BSI). We evaluated the impact on standard care of implementing the new BacT/ALERT® FAPlus and FNPlus BC bottles containing antibiotic-binding polymeric beads. We measured positivity rates and time to detection (TTD) during the first 10 months of implementation (PF) and during the previous 10-month period (PS) during which we were using standard aerobic (SA) or standard anaerobic (SN) BC bottles. For each period, the same number of consecutive patients (n = 3,918) was included. Per patient, a median of 1 BC set (1 aerobic and 1 anaerobic bottles) has been sampled. A higher positivity rate was measured during PF than PS when counting per BC bottle (7.0 % vs 5.8 % with 1,456 and 1,237 positive bottles respectively, P < 0.0001) and per BC set (9.6 % vs 7.8 % with 995 and 832 positive BC sets respectively, P < 0.0001). In PF, an increased number of cases due to staphylococci (P < 0.0001) and to Gram-negative bacilli (P < 0.005) was observed, whereas the contamination rate was similar during the two periods (2.4 % of BC sets in PF and 2.3 % in PS). Although antibiotic consumption and medical activity were similar during the two periods, BSI case detection increased from 2.2 to 2.6 per 1,000 hospital-days, especially in intensive care units (ICU; 35.1 to 55.7). Mean TTD for pathogenic microorganisms was significantly shorter in PF than in PS (15.5 h vs 18.0 h, P < 0.01). In conclusion, the use of the new FAPlus/FNPlus BC bottles improved the diagnosis of bacteremia in our hospital, especially in ICU patients.