Microbiología Médica y Diagnóstico

The COVID-19 Challenge for a Clinical Microbiology Department

Abstract

Mercedes Marín*

In a real-world scenario, quantify the workload and cost overload caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in a Clinical Microbiology laboratory. In the COVID pandemic, we compared the number of samples received, their distribution, human resources, and the budget of a Microbiology laboratory to the same months the previous year. The total number of samples processed in the Clinical Microbiology laboratory increased 96.70% from March to December 2020, representing a 127.50% increase when expressed as samples1000 admissions. The virology and serology departments bore the brunt of the increased workload. Despite the addition of new employees, the number of samples processed per technician increased by 12.5%. Microbiology incurs an additional cost of 6,616,511 euros.