Navigating Reflex Urine Culture Practices in Community Hospitals: Need for a Validated Approach

The DICON and DASON teams, lead by visiting fellow Dr. Dorothy Ling, performed a descriptive study of reflex urine culture (RUC) practices across 51 community hospitals in southeastern United States. They found that 26 unique reflexing criteria were used in 28 hospitals. Only 14% hospitals of hospitals that offered RUC restricted it to specific populations (e.g. emergency room). The data suggest that the current RUC approach in community hospitals warrants further validation of urinalysis criteria and identification of specific populations in which RUC performs best.

This article was published in the American Journal of Infection Control PubMed abstract

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