Each hour of delay in starting the appropriate antibiotic regimen increases the probability of mortality by 8.9% in patients with serious infections.

The supervised administration of antibiotics involves the efforts of health personnel (doctors and staff involved in the care of patients with serious infections) and different areas of a hospital (pharmacy, clinical and microbiology laboratory) trained in the management of antibiotics to ensure that they are used properly and only when necessary.

Molecular diagnosis of a serious infection in the clinical microbiology laboratory allows the identification of the causative microorganism and the detection of antibiotic resistance genes in a few hours.

The joint work of the critical medicine area (intensive care) and the clinical microbiology laboratory (a hospital’s quality marker) is aimed at guaranteeing the early diagnosis and treatment of serious infections and avoiding the unnecessary use of antibiotics. In the intensive care unit of Almater hospital, the medical staff works together with the clinical microbiology laboratory (located a few steps from the seriously ill patient) in the administration, supervision, adequate selection and early initiation of antibiotic treatment in patients with severe infections (sepsis).