Nosocomial salmonellosis: implications for microbiologic processing of stools in hospitalized patients.

Many microbiology laboratories are rationalizing their services and are not culturing stool for bacterial and parasitic pathogens from patients hospitalized for more than 3 days. We report a sporadic case of nosocomial salmonellosis that highlights the need for ongoing communication among clinicians, infection control personnel, and laboratories to allow for modification of such a routine laboratory protocol should epidemiologic evidence warrant.