Abstract
The department of clinical microbiology laboratory plays various roles in the many different aspects of nosocomial infection control. These roles include providing information concerning the prevalence of hospital pathogens, surveillance for nosocomial infection, and educating medical staff.
It is very important for the department of clinical laboratory to provide clinicians with microbiological information as quickly as possible, since useful information from microbiological tests is required for adequate clinical diagnosis and treatment of infectious disease. In order to provide reliable information for microbiological tests, it is necessary to control the quality of clinical specimens.
Since a large quantity of data has been accumulated on the database in the microbiology laboratory, clinical microbiologists will be the first to become aware of nosocomial infection spread. Well designed statistical data are necessary for appropriate empiric therapy and nosocomial infection control.
