[Advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing hospital microbiological testings].

In Japan, laws and ordinances were enforced to relax the regulation of the clinical laboratory setting in hospitals by revising the law of medical institutions in 2001. For this reason, outsourcing hospital microbiological testing, particularly by medium- or small-sized hospitals, was encouraged. The advantage of outsourcing microbiological testing is promotion of an efficient hospital management by cost saving. In contrast, the disadvantages are as follows: deterioration of specimen quality by extension of transportation time, delay in reporting by an independent laboratory compared with that by a hospital-based laboratory; this report is generally obtained within 1 or 2 days, difficulty and lack of communication between the laboratory staff and physician, and deterioration of the value of the microbiology report and the quality of the infection control system in a hospital. In addition to performing profit-related maintenance, independent laboratories should strive hard to maintain the same quality as that of a laboratory registered in a hospital. Furthermore, the new role of independent laboratories demands them to have a system allowing instant communication of information regarding the crisis control of infectious diseases to a hospital.