Flexibility and targeted approach reduced costs and time to results
At the recent South Central Association for Clinical Microbiology (SCACM) meeting, Ronald Reitenour, MT(ASCP), Area Coordinator Microbiology from Riverview Health in Noblesville, Indiana, presented results from his team’s experience with the VERIGENE® System and the impact the entire VERIGENE® infectious disease portfolio has made on patient care.
His lab serves a 156-bed hospital, a network of physician practices and long term care facilities, and conducts more than 90% of all tests requested there, and they were looking for faster in-house options to manage the tests that were still being sent to reference laboratories. On the administrative side, Reitenour noted, an ongoing antimicrobial stewardship program necessitated generating blood culture results more quickly.
In the process of evaluating molecular diagnostic platforms, Reitenour narrowed his options to the VERIGENE System and the FilmArray® System. When comparing the blood culture, respiratory, and gastrointestinal test offerings on both systems, he ultimately chose VERIGENE, citing overall cost-effectiveness and the flexible pricing feature of the VERIGENE® Respiratory Pathogens Flex Test (RP Flex), which allows him to offer both targeted and broad pathogen testing with one test.
The VERIGENE System was approved for use at Riverview Health, where its speed won support from the antimicrobial stewardship program, and the clear reduction in patient stays provided solid evidence for cost savings. During the lab’s subsequent test validation process, 40 samples were run on the system and were also sent out to a reference lab to be run on another platform. Only one specimen produced discordant results; further analysis determined that the VERIGENE System correctly detected influenza B, which was missed by the reference lab’s platform.
Finally, Reitenour presented a recent case study to illustrate how the VERIGENE System and its comprehensive test menu are making an impact at the hospital. An 80-year-old man was admitted to the emergency room with early lab results suggesting a bacterial infection. Within 24 hours, the team was able to produce a diagnosis of Streptococcus pneumoniae using the VERIGENE® Gram-Positive Blood Culture Test. It took an extra 22 hours before the culture-based test produced the same information. Evidence about likely resistance markers was available a full 48 hours before conventional methods, offering a significant advantage to efforts to better target antibiotics for patient care.
Learn More
- VERIGENE System
- VERIGENE Respiratory Pathogens Flex Test (RP Flex)
- VERIGENE Gram-Positive Blood Culture Test
