What to Consider When Calling For Cultures

Marin H. Kollef, MD, professor of medicine and Virginia E. & Sam J. Golman chair of the Respiratory Intensive Care department of Washington University School of Medicine, walks Contagion^® through his thought process when deciding to ask for cultures. According to Dr. Kollef, providers should be asking themselves questions like, "What am I going to do with this information?" and "How is that information from the culture going to impact what I do subsequently?" He explained that when he asks for cultures, "they're usually clinically relevant cultures." Dr. Kollef also touched on surveillance cultures and explained why they are not done often in the United States.