Microbiology — Organism Groups

Organism Groups let you define curated sets of organisms for specific microbiology tests. Associating a test with an Organism Group streamlines result entry by presenting a focused picklist of relevant organisms, speeding up workflow and reducing selection errors. Users can still access the full organism database if needed.

Why use Organism Groups

• Faster data entry: Short, relevant picklists for each test type.
• Fewer errors: Limits choices to likely/allowed organisms for that specimen/test.
• Standardization: Consistent organism naming and reporting across the lab.
• Flexibility: Users can switch to “All organisms” when exceptions occur.

Common examples:

• Urine culture group: E. coli, Klebsiella spp., Proteus spp., Enterococcus spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus saprophyticus
• Wound culture group: Staphylococcus aureus, β-hemolytic Streptococci, Enterobacterales, Pseudomonas, anaerobes
• Respiratory culture group: S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, respiratory flora

📘 Instructions: Add an Organism Group

1. Open the module

• Click Microbiology → Organism Groups.

2. Create the group

• Fill in all fields marked with an asterisk (e.g., Group Name, Status).
• Click Add to save.

3. Associate organisms and comments

• Select your new group from the grid.
• Add organisms: choose one or more organisms to include in the group, then click Update to save.
• Add comments (optional): enter standard interpretive comments that should be available with this group, then click Update.

Tip: Keep group names descriptive, e.g., “Urine Culture — Common Uropathogens.”

Link an Organism Group to a microbiology test

• In Test Setup, open the microbiology test and click Organism Group (Advanced).
• Select the group to associate with the test and save.

Result entry behavior:

• When entering results for that test, the Organism selector will default to the associated group.
• Users can switch to “All organisms” to select outside the group if needed (permissions/config dependent).

Best practices

• Build groups per specimen type/test panel (Urine, Wound, Respiratory, Blood).
• Include common species and “group/species complex” entries (e.g., Enterobacterales) to keep lists concise.
• Review and update groups periodically based on antibiogram trends and lab formulary.
• Pair with standardized organism comments (e.g., intrinsic resistance notes) to improve report clarity.
• Keep deprecated or rare organisms out of groups to reduce clutter; they remain available under “All organisms.”

Troubleshooting

• Group not appearing in result entry: Ensure the test is linked to the Organism Group in Test Setup and that the group is Active.
• Can’t add organisms to a group: Select the group in the grid first, then add organisms and click Update.
• Comments not available/printing: Verify comments were added to the group and that your report template includes organism/group comments.
• Need to pick outside the group: Switch the selector to “All organisms” or update the group to include the required organism.