2018 Volume 67 Issue 4 Pages 535-540
The role of clinical microbiological examinations in the diagnosis of infectious diseases and infection control is extremely important. The prompt reporting of blood culture results is required for patients with life-threatening infection, but accuracy is preferred over rapidity especially in an infection control situation. It is known that there are many variations in laboratory procedures and reporting methods among clinical microbiology laboratories. A questionnaire survey was conducted in order to assess the current status of clinical microbiological examinations in the clinical laboratories of both university hospitals and hospitals located in northern Japan. The results showed the present conditions of the clinical laboratories; these results will become important for pushing forward the standardization and improvement of clinical microbiological examinations.
