Category Health Pathology NSW
Antibiograms and commentaries – 2021 data Hunter New England LHD
Provided by Dr Rob George, Pathology NSW, 11/10/22: HNELHD Cumulative Antibiograms 2021 – Calvary Mater Newcastle HNELHD Cumulative Antibiograms 2021 – Hunter Valley Sector Commentary HNELHD Cumulative Antibiograms 2021 – John Hunter Hospital Commentary HNELHD Cumulative Antibiograms 2021 – Lake Macquarie Commentary HNELHD Cumulative Antibiograms 2021 – Lower Mid North Coast Sector HNELHD Cumulative Antibiograms […]
COVID-19 testing advice and current data, NSW
The national approach to COVID-19 specimen collection is dictated by this PHLN protocol (Public Health Laboratory Network). This is the clear PHLN protocol for deep nasal/throat combined specimen collection for PCR testing. For COVID-19 specific pathology testing advice in NSW, please see Pathology, NSW direct website. For COVID-19 case statistics and testing rates by district, […]
Blood culture surveillance (Pathology North)- contamination and double set culture rates
Contamination (e.g. with Coagulase negative staphylococci) Across the HNE LHD, the blood culture contamination rate was 2.3% (range 1.2-4.6%) which was satisfactory (below 3%). This is the current list of potential contaminant organisms (HNELHD) NHSN potential contaminant species list augmented by Pathology North: for a positive culture (any principal source) with one of these species […]
2017 Cumulative Antibiograms are released – HNE, MNC and Northern NSW
Cumulative antibiograms provide a summary of current bacterial antimicrobial susceptibility for key pathogens in urine and non-urine specimens. Treatment recommendations based on Therapeutic Guidelines, Antibiotic, Edition 15, 2014 are included in the commentaries. These are prepared by Pathology North, Microbiology for Hunter, New England, Northern NSW and Lower Mid-north coast regions. The detailed antibiogram reports are […]
Bacterial cultures, respiratory virus/bacterial PCR and infection control screen cultures- collection guides with new Floqswab kits
Health Pathology, NSW (Northern Sector) has recently switched all swab types to a ‘Floqswab‘ (flocked) that is of proven superiority for collecting specimen material. In conjunction with this, the collection kits have a container with liquid transport media rather than a gel. Some kits require the swab to be broken off into the medium before […]
Respiratory virus, pertussis and M. pneumoniae PCR detection – new FloqSwab Kit collection instructions
Universal Transport Media (UTM) and Flocked Swab Kit information, Pathology North June 2017 : document includes detailed collection instructions. NB. The swab set includes a narrow flocked swab that is designed for nasopharyngeal sampling (e.g. optimal for pertussis PCR) . Nose and throat samples or nasopharyngeal and throat samples are suitable for diagnosis of paediatric viral […]
2016 Hunter New England LHD Cumulative Antibiograms just released
Cumulative antibiograms provide a summary of current bacterial antimicrobial susceptibility for key pathogens in urine and non-urine specimens. Treatment recommendations based on Therapeutic Guidelines, Antibiotic, Edition 15, 2014 are included in each report. These are prepared by Pathology North, Microbiology for Hunter, New England and Lower Mid-north coast regions. The antibiogram reports include analyses of […]
Micro lab comments: candidaemia and candiduria
Candidal bloodstream infection represents a high risk infection, even for immunocompetent patients. Mortality is significant even for IV line-associated candidaemia. Blood cultures are seldom contaminated by fungi and any patient with an isolate must be subjected to careful clinical assessment. Our comment serves to give a few reminders that follow on from the liaison between the […]
AIMED - Let's talk about antibiotics 
Pathology stewardship – an essential element of AMS
Poor antimicrobial prescribing decisions often are triggered by laboratory results that create red herrings or worse. Inappropriate/ poor specimen collection and/or a request form that provides no context to the investigation often sets the ball rolling. Inappropriate workup and reporting of contaminant or colonising isolates may then follow (it may be impossible for the lab […]