Patient Safety, Clinical Microbiology, and Collaborative Healthcare

“Right to health” is a universal right inclusive of a culture of safety. This review aims to highlight how clinical microbiology laboratories can contribute to patient safety. They can bring down medical errors through clinical collaboration and quality control. Timely and accurate inputs from microbiology laboratory help in clinical correlation and aid in safe patient care. Through internet search, using keywords such as “medical errors” and “quality assurance,” global burden of medical errors has been compiled. References have been taken from guidelines and documents of standard national and international agencies, systematic reviews, observational studies, retrospective analyses, meta-analyses, health bulletins and reports, and personal views. Safety in healthcare should lay emphasis on prevention, reporting, analysis, and correction of medical errors. If not recorded, medical errors are regarded as occasional or chance events. Global data show adverse events are as high as 10% among hospitalized patients, and approximately two-thirds of these are reported from low- to middle-income countries (LMICs). This includes errors in laboratories as well. Clinical microbiology can impact patient safety when practiced properly with an aim to detect, control, and prevent infections at the earliest. It is a science that integrates a tripartite relationship between the patient, clinician, and a microbiology specialist. Through collaborative healthcare, all stakeholders benefit by understanding common errors and mitigate them through quality management. However, errors tend to happen despite standardization and streamlining all processes. The aim should be to minimize them, have fair documentation, and learn from mistakes to avoid repetition. Local targets should be set and then extended to meet national and global benchmarks.

Staphylococcus aureus in breast abscess-major culprit besides others

OBJECTIVE:Breast abscess is a significant cause of morbidity especially in young women of childbearing age. These abscesses are associated with physical, psychological disturbance, and long-term cosmetic consequences.MATERIALS AND METHODS:This was a prospective study that involved seventy cases of breast abscesses to identify etiological agents and their susceptibility patterns.RESULTS:Lactation was a risk factor in almost two-third of all cases. Others were diabetes mellitus, extremes of age, immunocompromised conditions, and tuberculosis. The most common bacterial isolate was Staphylococcus aureus (83.3%), almost half being methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Others included coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, Enterococcus spp., Streptococcus spp., Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, Candida spp., and acid-fast bacilli.CONCLUSIONS:The treatment of all such microorganisms is different, signifying that microbial diagnosis plays a pivotal role in management of such abscesses.

Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis: first reported case from Rohtak, North India

A fatal case of primary amoebic encephalitis (PAM) in a 20 year old boy, a proven case of acute leukemic leukemia (ALL) type L2, in remission is described. No history of swimming could be elicited. The clinical presentation, the isolation of the amoeba from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), the poor response to amphotericin B, and the ultimately fatal outcome are all consistent with the diagnosis of PAM. On the basis of its ability to grow at temperature 42ºC and 45ºC, morphology of trophozoite, and the presence of flagellate forms in CSF, the amoeba was identified as Naegleria fowleri. Other drugs used in combination with amphotericin B are tetracycline, rifampicin, and miconazole. A possibility of PAM should always be considered in all cases of acute purulent meningoencephalitis in which no bacteria or fungus are found.

Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi from a case of breast abscess.

Enteric fever is an acute systemic febrile infection caused by Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi. Breast abscess due to S. typhi infection is a rare sequelae. We report here a classical case of Salmonella typhi infection in a rare clinical form of a breast abscess in a non-lactating immuno-compromised female.