CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY

Vanderbilt University Medical Center Presenters: Jennifer Steinhauer & Elisa Brewington

Objectives

Determine how to order the tests the Doctor wants.

Learn how to correctly fill out a Microbiology requisition.

Determine what is the best specimen for the test.

ORDERING WHAT THE DOCTOR WANTS

It is important to know what orders the Physician wants for multiple reasons:

• Limited amount of specimen: specimens of limited quantity need to be disbursed to the highest priority cultures/tests.

• Patient care is our highest priority. Ordering

the correct tests is beneficial to everyone. Patients are treated in a timely manner while Medical Laboratory Scientists are able to aliquot their time to additional patient testing.

• Unnecessary tests are costly for the hospital

and for the patient.

If the Physician wants an aerobic & anaerobic culture, a bacterial culture will cover both of those for tissues, abscesses, or body fluids. (C&S, routine culture, and bacterial culture are the same thing and they include a gram stain.)

If the Physician wants a fungal culture (i.e. yeast, mold), order a Fungus culture.

If a Physician wants an Acid-Fast Bacillus (AFB) i.e. Mycobacteria, order an AFB culture. An AFB culture includes all mycobacterial species (i.e. TB, MAC, etc.).

We still need a little more information to properly accession specimens. Please legibly provide the Physician’s first and last name and/or the Physician code.

Most importantly, we need the specimen source in order to properly process the sample.

Please be as descriptive as possible when indicating the specimen source. Indicate the source on both the specimen and the requisition.

Please include the date and time the specimen was collected.

DETERMINING THE BEST SPECIMEN TO USE

While swabs are convenient, they are inferior to fluid and tissue.

NOW… E Swabs

E Swabs advantages over our current method: • Reduced cost • Plastic container provides added safety • Swab breakpoint reduces contamination • Increased microorganism viability

Any Questions?

If you ever have any questions, always feel free to call Microbiology @ 23406 or Lab Client Services @ 5-LABS.