An Intravenous Catheter Is Removed from an 83-Year-Old Male Hospitalized

An intravenous catheter is removed from an 83-year-old male hospitalized with cancer and sent to the laboratory for culture. The tip is rolled across the surface of a sheep blood agar. At 24 hours incubation, 20 colonies of white, gamma-hemolytic, gram-positive cocci are isolated. The organism proved to be catalase positive and tube coagulase negative. This organism

A) is a skin contaminant.
B) indicates a catheter-related infection.
C) cannot be assessed without the results of a blood culture drawn at the same time.
D) is considered a critical value and should be reported STAT.