General Information

Hello, Our hospital was recently inspected by the DES looking at Hazardous Waste Disposal. They have informed us that our practice of washing Gram's Stain down the sink has not been allowed for the past 30 years. Although it is washed with copious amounts of water, they say "Dilution is not the Solution". We will have to collect the waste stain and decolorizer and store it in a large plastic bottle. Is anyone else doing this? We are concerned about the fumes building up in that collection bottle.

My laboratory performs surveillance cultures for MRSA and VRE colonization with the use of chromogenic agar. We currently perform and report sensitivities for positive MRSA screens, but not for positive VRE screens. I am told that this is because our physicians do not routinely treat patients for VRE colonization in the absence of infection, while they do sometimes treat patients who are colonized with MRSA. I can't find much information regarding either practice. Should susceptibility results be reported along with positive MRSA or VRE surveillance cultures?

All, I'm training a few new people and the question of which modifier to use on some common lab tests came up again. One example is on the GAM (IgG, IgA, IgM). 91 or 59? Thanks, Beth.

We have stared using the Illumigene for C. diff testing. CAP question MIC.63252 asks about maintaning and monitoring statistics to catch an increase above the expected positive rate within a run or over multiple runs. Is anyone doing this? If so, what are you using for thresholds?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49344676

Just curious how other micro departments screen or isolate for Y. Enterocolitica for stool cultures. I believe our current practice is somewhat out of date.....we set a BAP, MAC, XLD, CVA and MAC broth (for shigatoxin testing) on stool cultures. After 24 hours we leave the MAC at room temperature to watch for Y. Enterocolitica. I have questioned how this is effective (being it's loaded with normal fecal flora usually), but I seem to get the answer: "we've always done it that way".

Are any of your micro labs involved with quality control for your hospital pharmacy? More specifically do any of you run cultures to check their sterile techniques when making IVs?

Can anyone help...? does anyone know the sensitivity and specificity of the Architect CMIA for HTLV I & II?? Much appreciated!

Hi, What are the acceptable procedure for discarding urine and stool specimen after processing. Though biohazard waste management guidelines recommend pouring down the sink and flushing with copious water, it is practically difficult. The next question is who will do that? The technologist or the housekeping staff? We are looking for alternate safe procedures. Can someone help? thanks

Hi, I was wondering if anyone was running and reporting out Cepheid Xpert's Clostridium/Epi assay. We currently run the C diff but are thinking about switching to the Cdiff/Epi assay. Thanks

Oxacillin sensitive and cefoxitin resistant would classified as MRSA, would you agree?

Is it normal practice to identify every organism in an eye culture (four organisms) and charge A MIC for each organism. The culture turned out to be 600.00 and was probably viral anyhow?

Hello--we bill for the urine culture alone, but I've recently heard that we could also be billing for the colony count. Anyone know anything about this?

Our budget is coming up and I would like any feedback from micro ID/Suscept systems that you have used. Just a short 2 or 3 points on the pros and cons (real life experience) on the instruments. BD Phoenix BioM Vitek 2 Microscan thanks

Does any have experience with the new Viper XTR Experience? We have an older model right now that works fine but our rep is really pushing for us to get the XTR. Please reply.

I am a med student from the US and am currently taking a Malaria class in Brazil. We are learning how to identify malaria. I have a couple questions. How many hours of clinical practice does someone need to get this down in the USA? I know our lab here has been critizied for teaching the class at 4hrs a day for two months. I will be having even less practical time. 4 hrs a day for a month. In short... what is the US view on being able to identify after that time? How long to malaria slides last? Giemsa and Walker stains. Would it be a usless effort to try to collect some reference slides of Malaria, T. Cruzi, Filaria and Microfilaria? I would like to continue doi…

Does anyone do repeat testing of DNA Probes for GC and Chlamydia if they are positive? All of them? or just ones with questionable contamination? ( like next to each other) Thanks Cindy:rolleyes:

If you have a urine culture with >100,000 gnr but also some lactobacillus, would you work up the gnr and assume the lacto is a contaminant? In other words, the UTI was not a good catch. Then let the doctor decide if he wants to use the susceptibility. Some people think that since it is contaminated that the gnr is also a contaminant. What do you think? Cindy:bonk:

Please our laboratory in lagos nigeria whats to establish a dna analysis laboratory / a molecular biology laboratory. A comprehensive list of cheap, simple but current equipment , consumables and accessories with sources & prices are urgently needed. Thanks