Accuracy and appropriateness of antimicrobial susceptibility test reporting for bacteria isolated from blood cultures.

Accurate antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and appropriate reporting of AST results for pathogens isolated from blood cultures are critical functions of the microbiology laboratory. We studied AST performance and reporting from positive blood cultures at hospital microbiology laboratories in Iowa. One hundred sixteen episodes of bacteremia from 14 participating hospitals were examined. We detected AST or identification errors for 18 episodes (16%) and judged reporting of AST results to be inappropriate for 38 episodes (33%). Further study is necessary to determine the impact of testing errors and suboptimal reporting of results on the management of bloodstream infection.