Sammanfattning
BACKGROUND : In Norway, approximately 35% of surgery laboratories use dip-slides to assess bacteriuria. From 2000 to 2004 the Norwegian centre for quality assurance in primary health care (NOKLUS) has evaluated how office laboratories assess urine dip-slides.
MATERIAL AND METHODS : Once a year participants receive inoculated and incubated dip-slides to read and report to NOKLUS. Target values are determined from assessments in four large microbiological laboratories.
RESULTS : Knowledge of reading dip-slides is insufficient. Only 40% of the participants in the quality assessment program evaluate whether growth is gram-negative or gram-positive, or take into account whether the growth is mono-bacterial or mixed. Many participants send the dip-slide to microbiological laboratories for evaluation whenever growth is significant, also when the growth is mixed.
INTERPRETATION : The programme shows that Norwegian office laboratories do not use all the information they can get from the dip-slide. There is a need for guidelines on this topic in general practice.