Posted: September 29th, 2016

You are working in an established microbiology diagnostic laboratory. The laboratory has recently been inspected by NATA and the Respiratory bench has failed its accreditation

The scenario for the project in medical microbiology is as follows. You are working in an established microbiology diagnostic laboratory. The laboratory has recently been inspected by NATA and the Respiratory bench has failed its accreditation. The report from NATA points our numerous faults including that the old procedures manual did not contain protocols that describe the work actually being done, that the descriptions of tests and media were inadequate. NATA have allowed 3 months for your laboratory to become compliant. (Non accredited laboratories will not be permitted to charge for their services) You are a recently qualified Medical Laboratory Scientist from Uni and you have been hired to undertake this project to completely re­ write the Respiratory Bench procedures manual so that the laboratory will be compliant before the next NATA inspection. The laboratory you work for services a wide rural area and the township where the lab is located has itself grown greatly in population. The laboratory performs identification and testing of all ?standard? respiratory pathogens, other unusual pathogens are sent by courier to Melbourne to a reference laboratory. Because of the recent growth in the population in this area, the management of the laboratory are seeking advice on future expansion and automation in the laboratory and have asked you to provide a report with recommendations for systems to be implemented in the medium term (2­5 years) to meet the growing needs in the area