LIMS Microbiology Culture Results

Entering Culture Results

This article walks through the step-by-step process of entering culture and organism identification data into a microbiology report. For an overview of how microbiology reporting works, see Microbiology Overview.

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Before You Begin

• The sample must be accepted at the lab. See Receiving Samples at the Lab.
• The investigation must be configured with the Microbiology report type. The correct entry layout appears automatically.
• You need result entry privileges for the lab department.

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Opening the Microbiology Report

1. Go to Menu > Lab > Report Management.
2. Search for the patient's investigation using the filters (patient name, order number, date range, or investigation name).
3. Click New Report next to the microbiology investigation. The microbiology result entry screen opens.

The screen is divided into two main sections:

• Memo / text fields — for preliminary findings and organism identification.
• Sensitivity panel — for antibiotic results (covered in the next article).

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Entering Preliminary Culture Findings

The top section of the microbiology report contains free-text (memo) fields where you record the early-stage observations before final organism identification.

1. Click into the Culture field (or similarly labelled memo field).
2. Type your preliminary finding, for example:
   • "No growth after 48 hours incubation"
   • "Growth on blood agar — non-haemolytic colonies"
   • "Gram-positive cocci in clusters"
3. These notes are saved with the report and appear on the printed output.
4. Click Save Report to save the draft. You can return to add more findings as incubation continues.

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Entering the Organism Identification

Once the organism is fully identified:

1. Locate the Organism or Identification memo field (below or within the preliminary findings section).
2. Type the full organism name and any relevant identification details, for example:
   • "Escherichia coli — confirmed by VITEK 2"
   • "Staphylococcus aureus — MRSA positive (mecA gene detected)"
3. Save the report.

Tip: There is no drop-down list of organisms — identification is entered as free text. This allows reporting any organism without needing to maintain a fixed master list.

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Recording "No Growth" Results

If no organism is isolated after the full incubation period:

1. Enter "No growth after [X] hours" (or your institution's standard phrase) in the organism identification field.
2. Leave all antibiotic sensitivity fields empty.
3. Save and proceed to approval.

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Working in Progress: Saving Without Approving

Microbiology cultures require incubation time — you may need to save partial results and return later to complete the report:

1. Enter whatever findings are available (preliminary culture observations, partial identification).
2. Click Save Report. The report is saved as a draft.
3. Return to the same investigation later (search by patient name or order number) and click the existing report to reopen and continue editing.
4. Approve the report only when the culture is complete and all results are final.

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What Happens to the Data

Each text entry is stored as a result value linked to the specific parameter (e.g., "Culture", "Organism"). When the report is printed, these values appear in the appropriate sections of the formatted microbiology report. The layout and heading labels are determined by the report format configured by the lab administrator.

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Next Step: Antibiotic Sensitivity

After recording organism identification, proceed to enter the antibiotic sensitivity results. See Antibiotic Sensitivity Testing.

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