Category:The role of the clinical microbiology laboratory in infection prevention and control

Clinical microbiology laboratories process various specimens from patients, healthcare workers or elsewhere e.g. the environment. The results of their analyses can either contribute to the everyday diagnosis and management of infection in individual patients (the clinical role), or inform healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) infection prevention and control/hospital hygiene (IC) interventions or antimicrobial stewardship (AS) activities (the public health/the epidemiological role). However, as we will see, these two roles are interactive.

Clinical role of the microbiology laboratory.

1. Patient diagnosis and management.
2. Specific issues of HAIs.
3. The challenges of microbiological specimens.
4. Requirements of clinical specimens for microbiological analyses.
5. Quality assurance systems.
6. Microbiological laboratory methods.
7. The challenges of the consolidated microbiology laboratory.
8. Future developments.
9. Point of care (POC) tests.

Epidemiological/public health role of the clinical microbiology laboratory

1. Surveillance.
2. Outbreak investigations
3. Antimicrobial stewardship (AS).
4. More specialised IC-related services.
5. Participation in IC committee.
6. Education of IC, AS and clinical staff.

References:

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• Diekema DJ, Saubolle MA. Clinical Microbiology and infection prevention. J Clin Microbiol 2011;49:S57-S60. doi:10.1128/JCM.00690-11.
• Kalenic S. the Role of Microbiology Laboratory. In: Basic Concepts of Infection Control, 3rd edition, International Federation of Infection Control, 2016. http://theific.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/7-micro_2016.pdf
• Murray PR. The clinician and the Microbiology Laboratory. In: Mandell, Douglas and Bennett’s Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases, 8th Ed., Bennett JE, Dolin R, Blaser MJ Editors, Elsevier Saunders, Philadelphia, 2015:191-223.
• Moore C. Point-of-care tests in infection control: should rapid testing be in the laboratory or at the front line? J Hosp Infect 2013;85(1):1-7. doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2013.06.005.
• Sautter LR, Thomson RB Jr. Consolidated clinical microbiology laboratories. J ClinMicrobiol 2015;53:1467-1472. doi:10.1128/JCM.02569-14.
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• Glenister H, Taylor L, Bartlett C, Cooke M, Sedgwick J, Leigh D. An assessment of selective surveillance methods for detecting hospital-acquired infection. Am J Med. 1991 Sep 16;91(3B):121S-124S.