PubMed · 16315504
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K C Lam. 2005. Addressing design for maintainability.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16315504/
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Foodborne infections pose an increasing public health challenge worldwide. The problem has been aggravated by the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance genes among zoonotic pathogens, which results in a sharp increase in antibiotic resistance rate recorded among the major foodborne pathogens. To obtain an overview of the extent to which food products purchased in the markets in Hong Kong were contaminated by foodborne pathogens, we collected 95 raw meat samples from wet markets and isolated 236 bacterial strains of various species, with Escherichia coli being the most dominant species (131 strains). Contamination of food products by multiple foodborne pathogens was commonly observed. These include both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria that exhibit various levels of resistance, with some possessing multiple clinically important antibiotic resistance genes. Seventeen bacterial strains of various species isolated from three food samples were comprehensively analysed by the Oxford Nanopore R10.4 technology. Novel conjugative plasmids carrying antimicrobial resistance gene-bearing mobile genetic elements were commonly detectable in the test strains. Some of the plasmids were shown to have originated from other environmental sources or other bacterial species, indicating that raw foods in the local market may serve as a reservoir of resistance-encoding genetic elements from which such elements are disseminated to various microbial pathogens. These findings suggest a need to perform periodic but comprehensive surveillance of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens and the major antimicrobial resistance genes in common food products, so as to disrupt the transmission routes of such organisms and the resistance-encoding genetic elements that they harbour.
An audit on the turnaround time (TAT) of a hospital phlebotomy service was undertaken to assess whether or not the existing service standards can satisfy the needs and expectations of both the external and internal customers. A job request survey form was designed and implemented in June 2005 to be used by the day shift to record the number of phlebotomy cases and the corresponding TAT. The success rate and complaints related to phlebotomy were also recorded. Phlebotomists provided the data for this study on an honor system basis. Out of 2,118 test requests received by the laboratory, 1,867 (88.1 percent) were phlebotomy requests. Approximately 62 phlebotomy requests were recorded, on average, per day shift. The average time, expressed in mean +/- standard deviation (SD) needed for response, arrival, and job completion was 7.4 +/- 1.5 minutes, 5.6 +/- 1.6 minutes, and 10.4 +/- 2.4 minutes respectively, with an average overall TAT of 23.4 +/- 4.1 minutes per phlebotomy request. The success rate at first phlebotomy attempt was 97 percent, and only one complaint was received during the audit period. This study may help hospital management identify possible bottlenecks that delay phlebotomy TAT, thus improving service standards in this area.