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For SCC SoftMic and SoftLab hospitals

SoftMic antibiogram software for SCC Soft Computer labs that need a CLSI M39 report without rebuilding it in Excel

SoftMic holds every isolate, every drug and every rule your lab applies before a result is released. The cumulative antibiogram your prescribers read once a year is still pulled out of it and finished by hand.

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under 40 40 to 59 60 to 74 75 to 89 90 and over n<30, below the reporting threshold n/t, not tested on this panel

Short answer

SoftMic antibiogram software reads a delimited export of finalized susceptibility results from SCC SoftMic and builds the cumulative antibiogram from that file. Antimicrobe keeps the first isolate per patient per period, flags organisms under 30 isolates as CLSI M39 recommends, labels drugs your SoftMic rules suppress on some isolates, and prints the rules it applied with counts. The Lab plan is $249 a month for one facility, bought by card, with no interface to build.

Computed from your own isolates, never from a national average.

What SoftMic already does for your lab

SoftMic is the microbiology module of the SCC Soft Computer laboratory suite, sold beside SoftLab for the core lab and SoftTotalQC for quality control. SCC was founded in 1979 by Gilbert Hakim, is based in Clearwater, Florida, and says it has sold more than 350 LIS contracts serving over 1,000 sites. Its largest public reference is Mayo Clinic, which announced a multisite rollout of an SCC laboratory system across its labs in Minnesota, Arizona and New England.

SCC describes SoftMic as a way to manage microbiology specimens in a paperless environment. Its product page lists automated batch processing, unlimited user-defined rules for drugs, organisms and tests (including rules that suppress drug results, cancel tests and auto-verify), reports stored at the clinic, isolate and test level, and epidemiology reports such as infection control and other statistics built on qualifying criteria.

So the data an antibiogram needs is already there, discrete and verified. What SCC does not publicly describe is a CLSI M39 cumulative antibiogram report, and its user documentation is behind a customer login. That gap is where the January rebuild happens.

Medical technologist reading a susceptibility panel at a hospital microbiology bench beside a results workstation

Why a SoftMic statistics report is not yet an antibiogram

An epidemiology or statistics query counts what you ask it to count. An antibiogram that a stewardship committee can defend needs four extra decisions made the same way every year, and in most SoftMic labs those decisions live in a spreadsheet one person built.

The suppression point is not theoretical. In a 2016 Journal of Clinical Microbiology study from St. Joseph's Health Centre in Toronto (PMID 27385708), susceptibility data came from SCC SoftMic and results were displayed in Sunrise Clinical Manager. When the lab stopped reporting ciprofloxacin on susceptible E. coli urine isolates, ciprofloxacin use fell from 87 to 39 defined daily doses per 1,000 patient days. More on that hospital setup is in antibiogram software for Sunrise Clinical Manager hospitals.

  • Repeat isolates. CLSI M39 keeps the first isolate of a species per patient per analysis period. A query that counts every isolate lets a long-stay patient with weekly cultures pull the percentage down
  • Suppressed drugs. SoftMic rules can hide a result from the report, for example ciprofloxacin on a susceptible urine E. coli. If the export only holds released results, those drugs look like they were tested on a small, odd subset of isolates
  • Thin denominators. M39 asks labs not to print a percent susceptible on fewer than 30 isolates, so most organisms in a smaller hospital need pooled years or a count instead of a number
  • Sites mixed together. SCC is built for multisite labs. One SoftMic database often serves several hospitals and outreach clients, and a house-wide antibiogram for one hospital needs the others filtered out

How to export antibiogram data from SoftMic

Ask your SoftMic system administrator or LIS analyst for one delimited file of finalized susceptibility results for the analysis period. One row per organism and drug works, and so does one row per isolate with a column per drug. Include a patient identifier (hashed is fine), collection date, performing site, ordering location or patient type, specimen source, organism, antimicrobial and the interpretation.

Ask for tested results, not only released ones, with a column that says whether each result was suppressed. That lets the antibiogram show the full ciprofloxacin picture for E. coli while your patient reports keep the selective rule. If your lab cannot export suppressed results, the released file still works, and Antimicrobe labels the affected drugs so nobody reads them as house-wide rates.

WHONET users should not expect a SoftMic template in BacLink. The WHONET guide to laboratory information system exports gives detailed templates only for MEDITECH Magic and Cerner Classic and asks every other system for a delimited text file. That is the same file Antimicrobe reads.

A column-by-column example of a good export is on laboratory information system exports.

  1. 1

    SoftMic query

    Final susceptibility results for the year, with site, location and specimen source

  2. 2

    CSV file

    One delimited export, tested results plus a suppressed flag if your lab can add it

  3. 3

    Antimicrobe

    First isolate per patient, 30 isolate flag, one hospital or all sites by filter

  4. 4

    Antibiogram

    House-wide, urine and unit tables with counts and a rule receipt for the committee

SoftMic reports, WHONET and Antimicrobe compared

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

SoftMic from SCC Soft Computer product pages, WHONET from its own documentation, Antimicrobe from its pricing page.
Question SoftMic query and Excel WHONET with BacLink Antimicrobe
First isolate per patient Only if built into the sheet Yes, if configured On by default, counts shown
Suppressed drugs Missing or mixed in Depends on the export Labeled when flagged
Under 30 isolates Manual Configurable Flagged, years pooled on request
One hospital of many A filter per run Yes, after setup Any column in the file
Runs on Excel on one PC Windows desktop Any browser, with seats
Cost Staff hours Free, paid in staff hours $249 a month on the Lab plan

Does a SoftMic antibiogram follow CLSI M39?

It follows M39 as far as the query and the spreadsheet do. SoftMic stores and releases the results, but the M39 choices are made by whoever builds the antibiogram: first isolate per patient per period, final results only, no percentage on fewer than 30 isolates, pooled years labeled, and drugs tested on selected isolates marked as such.

Antimicrobe applies those rules every time and prints a rule receipt with isolate counts before and after de-duplication. When the committee, a CAP inspector or a Joint Commission surveyor asks how the E. coli number was made, the answer is on the page.

Each M39 rule and how common tools handle it is on CLSI M39 antibiogram software.

Which plan fits a SoftMic hospital

A single hospital producing a house-wide, urine and emergency department antibiogram from SoftMic 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.

Many SCC customers are health systems whose one SoftMic database serves several hospitals and outreach clients. Stewardship, $749 a month, covers up to three facilities with unit cuts, quarterly trends and MDRO counts. Network, $2,400 a month, gives a system one regional antibiogram plus each hospital's own, built from the same export.

Every limit is on the pricing page. If you are also choosing alerts and intervention tracking for the pharmacy team, compare the platforms in antimicrobial stewardship software for community hospitals.

Clinical pharmacist and laboratory manager reviewing a printed antibiogram and a laptop in a health system office

What this does not do

  • It does not connect to SoftMic directly or through HL7. It reads exported files, as often as you export them
  • It does not reinterpret MICs or zone sizes. It uses the S, I and R your lab assigned
  • It does not replace SoftMic for result entry, verification, selective reporting or patient reports
  • It does not submit antimicrobial use or resistance data to NHSN
  • It does not send real-time alerts on individual patients

Related reading: CLSI M39 antibiogram software, Sunquest LIS antibiogram software, laboratory information system exports, antibiogram software for Sunrise Clinical Manager hospitals, WHONET alternative. The four steps from susceptibility testing data to an antibiogram cover the method end to end.

Questions

On this page's topic

Does SoftMic have an antibiogram report?

SCC says SoftMic integrates epidemiology reports such as infection control and other statistics, but it does not publicly describe a CLSI M39 cumulative antibiogram report, and its user guides are behind a customer login. Most SoftMic labs export final susceptibility results and build the antibiogram in Excel, WHONET or a separate tool such as Antimicrobe.

How do I export susceptibility results from SoftMic?

Ask your SoftMic administrator or LIS analyst for a delimited report of finalized susceptibility results for the year, with patient identifier, collection date, performing site, location, specimen source, organism, drug and interpretation. Add a suppressed flag if your rules hide some drugs from patient reports. Save it as CSV and upload it.

Should suppressed results go into the antibiogram?

Tested results that your selective reporting rules hide from patient reports can go into the antibiogram if the drug was tested on every isolate of that organism, which gives prescribers the true rate. If a drug was only tested on selected isolates, the rate is biased and should be labeled or left out. Antimicrobe labels those drugs when the export carries a suppressed flag.

Can one SoftMic database produce separate antibiograms for each hospital?

Yes, if the export includes the performing site or ordering facility. Antimicrobe filters by any column in the file, so a health system can print one antibiogram per hospital and a combined regional one from the same upload. Separate facilities are counted against the Stewardship or Network plan.

Who makes SoftMic?

SoftMic is made by SCC Soft Computer, a laboratory, genetics and blood services software company founded in 1979 by Gilbert Hakim and based in Clearwater, Florida. It is sold as part of the SCC laboratory suite with SoftLab and SoftTotalQC.

How much does antibiogram software for a SoftMic hospital cost?

Antimicrobe's Lab plan is $249 a month for one facility, bought by card with no implementation fee, and it reads SoftMic and reference lab exports. Stewardship is $749 a month for up to three facilities with unit cuts, trends and MDRO counts, and Network is $2,400 a month for multi-hospital systems.

More on antimicrobial resistance reporting

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