Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Design: Introduction, Section Details, Special Features and, Keynotes

Introduction of Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Design

No doubt, developing ‘Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Design’ is really a hard task since the following factors affect it directly or indirectly-

• Test of services and stream of microbiology sections
• The capability of covering the risk of organisms
• Shape and area of the laboratory spaces
• Sample size
• Diagnostic/Research or both (nature of laboratory)
• Minimizing laboratory-acquired infections

Sections Details

Section 1 is the green zone and is fully safe. It has the following cabins-

1. Waiting room with Microbiology gallery
2. Patient counseling room
3. Specimen collection room (rare case)
4. Chair of the department cabin
5. Supervisor cabin
6. Open spaces for meeting/ staff lockers/ refreshing

Section 2 is the complete laboratory and is fully separated from section 1.

It has the following sub-sections-

2a: Culture media preparation room

2b. Biomedical waste management room

2c. Micro-molecular stat lab

2d. Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3)​

2e. Molecular Diagnostic qualitative

2f. Additional molecular diagnostic

Note: 2a to 2f subsections are fully closed.

Partially closed or opens sub-sections are as follows-

• Receiving and processing (RAP) section
• Reporting desk
• Blood Culture BD BACTEC
• Incubators ( CO2 and BOD)
• MALDI-TOF-MS(VITEK MS)/VITEK 2 Compact
• Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST)
• Traditional Microbiology Section
• Biobanking

Special Features of this type of Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Design

The special features of this type of ‘Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Design’ are as follows-

• Bacteriology (aerobes and anaerobes)
• Mycology (only for yeasts)
• Mycobacteriology
• Serology
• Compatible with next generation
• Golden jubilee celebration
• Consolidation laboratory design
• Coverable risk group III organisms

Demerits of this type of Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Design

Demerits of this type of ‘Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Design’ are mentioned as follows-

• No space for fungi (especially molds)
• No space for Virus culture
• No space for parasitology

Note: Complete clinical mycology, Virology, and cell culture laboratories are not merged in the same platform due to the area of space compromisation and fungal contamination.

Cutting-Edge Laboratories Have the Following Features-

• 4G laboratory
• TLA (total laboratory automation)
• AI (artificial intelligence)
• ML( machine learning)
• Golden jubilee feasible

Keynotes on Laboratory Design

• Risk Group III bacterial pathogens are Brucella, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Bacillus anthracis, Bartonella bacilliformis, Burkholderia mallei, Coxiella burnetii, Francisella, Yersinia pestis, rickettsiae, Chlamydia.
• Risk Group III fungal pathogens are Coccidioides, Histoplasma, Blastomyces dermatitidis, Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, and Talaromyces (formerly Penicillium) marneffei.
• Risk Group III fungal pathogens are Ebola, Marburg, Nipah paramyxovirus, Machupo arenavirus, Lassa arenavirus, Junin arenavirus, Guanarito arenavirus, Sabia virus, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, Hazara nairovirus, Kyasanur Forest Disease, Tick-born encephalitis, Herpesvirus simiae (B virus), Omsk haemorrhagic fever disease
• The distance between sections should be maintained according to the busy working zone to the less working zone during designing the laboratory.
• The area of space for this design has required an average of 6000 square feet.

Bibliography

1. Modern Microbiology: Laboratory planning and design-from medlabmag.com?article/1570
2. ASM Journal/s-review article-‘ consolidation of clinical Microbiology Laboratories and Introduction of Transformative Technologies
3. ASM Journals_ Review article’ Practical Guidance for Clinical Microbiology Laboratories: Implementing a Quality Management System in the Medical Microbiology Laboratory
4. NPHL Guidelines-‘ Check-list for A level laboratory-New
5. WHO Guidelines on Establishment of Virology Laboratory in Developing Countries
6. Designer’s own experiences in the field of Clinical Microbiology
7. AMR Surveillance Program Monthly Bulletin April, 2017-MoH, DoHS, NPHL, Teku, Kathmandu
8. WHO -Laboratory Quality Standards and their Implementation
9. https://www.utas.edu.au/research-admin/research-integrity-and-ethics-unit-rieu/biosafety/risk-groups/human-and-animal-risk-groups