LabDaq antibiogram software for independent and physician office labs that owe their clients a CLSI M39 report

Why a Data Miner query is not yet an antibiogram

A Data Miner query returns rows. An antibiogram that a prescriber can trust needs four decisions applied to those rows the same way every year, and in most LabDaq labs those decisions live in one person's spreadsheet.

Each of these rules, and how Excel, WHONET and instrument software handle them, is on CLSI M39 antibiogram software.

• Repeat isolates. CLSI M39 counts the first isolate of a species per patient per analysis period. A resident with four positive urine cultures in a year should count once, not four times
• Thin counts. M39 asks labs not to print a percent susceptible on fewer than 30 isolates. A single nursing home or urgent care site rarely reaches 30 for anything except E. coli, so years or sites have to be pooled and labeled
• Client mixing. An independent lab serves dozens of ordering clients from one database. A client's antibiogram has to be built from that client's isolates only, and a pooled regional one has to say which clients are in it
• Partial panels. If a drug is only tested on resistant isolates, its rate looks worse than it is. Those drugs need a label, not a percentage

How to export antibiogram data from LabDaq

Build one saved Data Miner filter for finalized culture and susceptibility results over the analysis period, usually the last calendar year. Keep one row per organism and drug, or one row per isolate with a column per drug. Include a patient identifier (hashed is fine), collection date, ordering client or location, specimen source, organism, antimicrobial and the S, I or R your lab reported.

Export it as CSV and upload it. Antimicrobe maps your column names once and remembers the mapping, so next year the same saved filter produces a file that drops straight in. If your LIS administrator prefers, the same columns can come from a scheduled report instead of Data Miner.

If your lab runs culture and susceptibility on a VITEK 2, MicroScan or Phoenix instrument, the instrument data manager holds the same results. LabDaq is usually the better source for an outreach lab because it carries the ordering client on every row, which the instrument often does not.

A column by column example of a clean export is on laboratory information system exports. Instrument specific notes are on VITEK 2 antibiogram software and MicroScan antibiogram software.

1. 1

   LabDaq Data Miner

   Saved filter for final culture and susceptibility results, with ordering client

2. 2

   CSV file

   One export for the year, column names mapped once

3. 3

   Antimicrobe

   First isolate per patient, 30 isolate flag, one report per client or pooled

4. 4

   Antibiograms

   A printable report for each client, with counts and the rules applied

One antibiogram for every client facility

This is where a LabDaq outreach lab has something to sell. Skilled nursing facilities must run an antibiotic stewardship program under 42 CFR 483.80 (F881), and surveyors ask how the facility monitors resistance. Most homes have no microbiology lab of their own. Their culture results live in yours.

Urgent care groups and large primary care practices are in the same position. CDC's Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship ask clinics to track and report prescribing, and a local susceptibility table is what tells their clinicians whether nitrofurantoin or a fluoroquinolone is the better first choice for a UTI in their own patients.

A lab that hands each client an antibiogram built from its own isolates, with a regional pooled table when the client is too small, gives that client a reason to keep sending specimens. Antimicrobe filters by the ordering client column in your export, so one upload produces every client report.

What nursing home clients need from the report is covered on nursing home antibiogram software, and the outpatient version on outpatient antibiogram software. Larger labs serving many hospitals should read antibiogram software for reference labs.

LabDaq Data Miner, WHONET and Antimicrobe compared

WHONET is the free route and suits a lab with a Windows PC and time to learn it. The honest differences are on the WHONET alternative page.

Does a LabDaq antibiogram follow CLSI M39?

It follows M39 only as far as the person building it does. LabDaq stores and releases results correctly, but the M39 choices (first isolate per patient per period, final results only, no percentage under 30 isolates, pooled periods labeled) are made after the export, usually in Excel.

Antimicrobe applies those rules on every run and prints a rule receipt with isolate counts before and after de-duplication. When a client's consultant pharmacist, a state surveyor or a CAP inspector asks how a number was made, the answer is printed under the table.

Which plan fits a LabDaq lab

A physician office lab or a small hospital that needs one antibiogram a year needs the Lab plan: $249 a month for one facility, 25,000 isolates a year and two seats, bought by card with no implementation fee. Annual billing is half the monthly price.

An independent lab producing reports for several clients counts each client facility. Stewardship, $749 a month, covers up to three facilities with unit and source cuts, quarterly trends and MDRO counts. Network, $2,400 a month, covers up to twelve facilities with side by side comparison, and Enterprise, $3,990 a month, has no facility limit.

Every limit is on the pricing page, and what other routes cost is in how much antibiogram software costs.

What this does not do

• It does not connect to CGM LABDAQ directly or over HL7. It reads files you export, as often as you export them
• It does not reinterpret MICs or zone sizes. It uses the S, I and R your lab reported
• It does not replace LabDaq for result entry, verification, billing or client reports
• It does not submit antimicrobial use or resistance data to NHSN
• It does not send real-time alerts on individual patients