The impact of same-day tests versus traditional overnight testing

Within the last decade, major technologic advances have been made in clinical microbiology that have resulted in the availability of a wide variety of different methods for the rapid reporting of test results. Included among these technologies are rapid methods for producing antimicrobial susceptibility reports that many regard as the most important information generated by the microbiology laboratory. Ideally, the early availability of this important information should favorably affect patient care by enabling the more judicious use of alternative drug therapies that are equally efficacious yet less toxic and less costly to the patient. Clinicians appear to have been reluctant to modify initial empiric therapies, however, despite the availability of the rapid antimicrobial susceptibility report. This article addresses some of the issues responsible for this long-standing problem and discusses and explores various strategies that can be implemented for improving the use and for controlling the cost of antimicrobial agents within the hospital.