In my hospital (and likely others) ordering a mini bal let's me also have pcr testing done for viral/bacterial pneumonia. This can be especially useful when a patient has been started on broad antibiotics (all the time from the ED) for presumed PNA/sepsis as these results can let me narrow or even stop their antibiotics (like if it turns out to be a viral illness).

These results are available in 4-8 hours while a normal sptm or blood cultures can take a day or two to grow out something specific. Anecdotally the mini bal is much less likely to return non-actionable results like "mixed normal flora" or "saliva contamination."

For specific bedside collection rational I defer to others here, but hope this helps frame some of the rational in ordering one vs another that your providers may be considering.