Effects of media, working practice, and automation on the rapid detection of bacteraemia.

Advances in the treatment of disease have resulted in an increasing number of blood cultures being processed by microbiology departments. The effect of media, revision of working hours, and automation on the time taken to detect positive cultures are reported. A 9.5% detection rate at 24 h with broth systems examined manually increased to 76.0% with a semi-automated radiometric technique (BACTEC). The use of radiometry in a restructured working day--that is, 9.00 am to 7.00 pm--resulted in optimum conditions for reducing the reporting time. The efficacy of modern equipment, designed to detect micro-organisms rapidly, can be considerably enhanced by reorganisation of traditional working hours to suit microbial growth rather than the current availability of staff.