"DROP PLATE" METHOD OF COUNTING VIABLE BACTERIA
This paper is a critical review of the "drop plate" method of determining the number of viable bacteria in fluids, together with a description of an experimental comparison of the "drop plate" with the more usual "pour plate" procedure. It is shown that counts on pure cultures of bacteria made by the "drop plate" method are some 7% higher than those made on the same cultures by the "pour plate" method. It is also shown that the standard error of a series of counts made by the "drop plate" procedure is slightly less than for those made by the "pour plate" method.
Despite the fact that since 1985 the government of Quebec increased by 5.75 % on average the amount of money spent on healthcare per year, little improvement was noted. It is obvious that an optimal use of resources is essential to reduce waiting times and provide safer and faster services to patients. The use of new technology can contribute to improve the healthcare system efficiency. Our study aims to assess the impact of a medication distribution technology on 1) the performance of a health and social services center’s pharmacy, 2) the performance of one care unit in a nursing home and on 3) the medication-use process safety. To measure performance we were inspired by the Lean approach. The results show that medication distribution technology is considered as an effective way to significantly detect medication errors, to allow nurses to focus more on patients and pharmacy to react more rapidly to changes in patient medications.