Comprehensive Consultation Services

Optimize the services of your microbiology laboratory by partnering with Microbiology Technical Services, LLC, giving you full access to ABMM-certified microbiology specialists based throughout the U.S.  We recognize the resource limitations of laboratories and provide expert solutions for technical questions and management problems that arise on a daily basis in a busy diagnostic microbiology laboratory, large or small.

As the main microbiology resource for the pathologists and laboratory management, we provide the following services:

Diagnosis

We can consult with your physicians on laboratory matters of infectious disease diagnosis and work closely with hospital staff, including infection control personnel, on their needs and related issues. Our job is to keep you at the cutting edge of infectious disease diagnosis and optimize the resources available to you.

24-hour Consultation

We provide 24-hour access to technical consultation. In fact, your physicians can call us directly with questions or laboratory diagnostic issues. We provide a unique external proficiency/competency review program of selected stained slides. We maintain frequent contact with the laboratory through email, telephone, and fax.

Liaison

We evaluate, interpret, and correlate unusual microbiology laboratory results to patient care when needed, serving as infectious disease liaison between lab and doctor if an infectious disease specialist is unavailable. We provide the Laboratory Director with the technical advice and documentation necessary to maintain and secure trust of microbiology diagnostic data for patient care. We provide a strong link between the laboratory and infection control and pharmacy.


On-Site Presence

We provide on-site visits if needed and an initial complete technical review of your microbiological laboratory as well as assistance in implementing the most cost-effective methods to provide service needs of your staff or practice. On-site visits are at the discretion of the laboratory.

Problem Resolution

To assure the community standard of care in the microbiology laboratory, we help you apply documented interpretive criteria for microbiology tests and assist in the resolution of technical problems of culture identification and documentation. We are available to your physicians to determine and discuss the clinical significance of common and uncommon isolates.  We are available all the time and “have your back” when you need us.

Strategic Direction

Engaging our experience as microbiology laboratory directors, we can offer strategies to meet all standards of good microbiology laboratory practice, assist in strategic planning for future services, and help meet all CAP and CLIA regulations including help in writing procedure manuals.


Analysis

We can help evaluate and analyze susceptibility test data and provide summary information, assist in developing and monitoring your local antibiogram, and guide your recognition and confirmation of common and uncommon mechanisms of resistance. We also work directly with pharmacist in related matters.

Implementation

Once we make recommendations, we are there to assist you in achieving the goals and priorities you set. We assist in evaluation and incorporation of new technology, equipment, and tests into practice and warn the laboratory of questionable products or procedures. We are available to provide in-service training to laboratory staff, nurses, and physicians as part of our consultation services.

Optimization

We help you focus on technical streamlining, cost savings, and optimizing services. In doing so, we work continuously with the supervisor to ensure best practices throughout all sections of the microbiology laboratory.


 

 
  • Do I need a microbiology consultant for my laboratory?

    …You do if your laboratory needs expertise to recognize and interpret susceptibility results where KPCs, ESBLs, metallo-beta-lactamases, or other emerging resistance mechanisms complicate interpretation;  Antibiotic stewardship is one of our strengths!

    …You do if you need someone who will stand firm to insist on appropriate specimens and when inappropriate demands are made of the laboratory.

    …You do if you need an experienced individual who can discuss culture implications and screening tests with infection control and pharmacy.

    …You do if, in the absence of an infectious disease specialist, you need an infectious disease liaison between the laboratory and the medical staff.

    …You do if physicians call the microbiology laboratory with questions about clinical application of culture results..

    …You do if you need access to someone you can depend upon to help resolve problems with gram stains, requests for testing for unknown etiology, difficult-to-identify organisms, emerging technology, and many other daily questions that arise.

    …You do if you have difficult-to-answer mycology or parasitology clinical and laboratory questions.

    …You do if your microbiology supervisor says that this type of partner would be a great help to the lab.

    Actually, all medical diagnostic laboratories need access to ABMM board-certified microbiologists. The literature shows these laboratories perform better and have a greater degree of prestige.

  • The Role of the Microbiology Consultant In Cost Savings for the Hospital
    • Technical streamlining in the microbiology laboratory is critical and can potentially save thousands of dollars by offering the same, high quality service with fewer resources, especially in multi-hospital settings.
    • Changing a simple media inoculation protocol for a high-volume specimen
    • Optimizing methods that currently exist
    • Offering rational alternatives to more expensive test methods and products
    • Testing only specimens that are appropriate
    • Interacting with physicians to facilitate their understanding of lab diagnosis
    • Working up and reporting only organisms that are clinically relevant
    • Selectively testing for antimicrobial susceptibility and eliminating some testing
    • Standardizing methods in multi-laboratory systems provides maximum cost savings
  • Benefits of hiring Microbiology Technical Services
    • Interaction of a doctoral level Board Certified Microbiology Specialist with hospital staff and client physicians can facilitate the best use of the microbiology laboratory and support the Pathologist, the lab manager, and the microbiology supervisor in providing the latest information to justify a technical decisions in support of patient care.  Laboratories with ABMM certified microbiologists perform better and have more credibility  (JCM 34: 496-500.1996).   Infectious Disease Society of America recommends that all laboratories be directed by or have access to an ABMM certified microbiologist (Clin Infect Dis 32 (4): Feb 15, 2001.  Clin Infect Dis  67 (6), 31 Aug 2018.)
    • Marketing the services of a Microbiology Specialist to the physicians offers a new and unique service to them that promotes the best of patient care and optimum use of the laboratory resources.
    • Working with the pharmacist to justify savings with formulary decisions based on analysis of antimicrobic test data.
    • Working with Infection Control to correctly analyze microbiology laboratory data regarding extended spectrum beta lactamases, glycopeptide intermediate Staphylococcus aureus, Vancomycin resistant enterococci, multiresistant organisms, and assisting in infection control decisions and diagnostic stewardship where appropriate.  Unnecessary sampling and cohorting of patients is extremely costly to the hospital and to the laboratory.
    • Serving as a clinical diagnostic liaison from the laboratory to all physicians, discussing the results and implications of microbiology data.  Thorough understanding of complex results can prevent inappropriate therapy and extended length of stay for patients.
    • Offering in-service training to nurses and house staff on emerging issues in microbiology, new requirements and methods in laboratory diagnosis, and other topics keeps the hospitals at the cutting edge of technology and patient care.
    • Being available 24h/day for consultation provides continuous coverage for laboratory and diagnostic issues and minimizes the need for time-consuming research to find relevant answers.