[Current state and problems in the microbiology laboratory--organizing the laboratory].

The microbiological laboratory in the hospital has many roles including the rapid and precise identification of pathogenic bacteria in specimens, their antimicrobial susceptibility tests, microbial antigen detection using immunological methods and DNA hybridization methods, surveillance of bacterial milieu of the hospital environment, monitoring quality control of microbiological methods, to educate microbiological skills of staffs, the economical management of laboratory and so on. The last two issues are our major concerns. Improvement of the microbiological skills of the staff is most important in the laboratory, but is a time-consuming. From our experience, a technical expert, intermediately skilled technicians and beginners should always work in the laboratory, together. On the other hand, the economical management of the microbiological laboratory is also another concern. Although the mechanization of procedures comes to mind, it is hard to improve the economical conditions in the laboratory. Because of the control of the machines is not completely automatic and requires the knowledges and decisions of technical experts, the work force and running cost can not be reduced. As the technical expert can economize in the use of media or tests for identification of pathogens, good training of beginners into skillful successors, is important.