Maintaining lasting progress in laboratory test utilization is difficult to do without a reminder tool for providers. Since implementation of a quarterly physician report card in 2003, we have seen sustained improvement in the ordering of wellness tests in an ambulatory care network in the United States for over four...

Modern analytical devices for testing biological fluids, such as blood, have now developed a sophistication that ensures the quality of the analytical result is capable of matching that achieved in the central laboratory.    Complementary developments are focused on reducing operator-related and connectivity-related...

In 2005, acutecaretesting.org interviewed Dr Michael Astion, an active spokesperson for patient safety and reduction of lab errors, on the main issues surrounding the topic. Since then, a lot has changed… or has it? In a follow-up interview with Astion, acutecaretesting.org gauges the status of patient safety year...

This essay is a follow-up to the 2006 series expressing concern that there is a widespread gap between QC theory and QC practice. Now we are giving you, the reader, the opportunity to rate your own QC practice and to help prove or disprove that gap.  If the QC theories generally recommended by recognized QC experts ...

In most hospitals, the amount of nursing time spent on actual patient care is only 33 %, while problem solving consumes 40 % of their time. That’s the bad news. The good news is that inverting this ratio may be easier than you think.  According to Dr John Kenagy and David Sundahl of the US-based Kenagy & Associates,...

Blood gas analysis is a complex field that has a direct impact on patient care in a critical care environment. Healthcare professionals consistently emphasize high-quality results in order to properly treat patients, and recognize the need and usefulness of quality standards.  Using a path-of-workflow analysis as part ...

Where do you go for help, when you are a parent of a child who stops breathing while it sleeps? If you live in the south of Sweden, you go to Halmstad County Hospital, where a team of specialists are ready to monitor your sleeping child by polysomnography (PSG). The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Halmstad has ...

Hypoxia and hypoxemia describe states of oxygen deficiency: hypoxia is deficiency in oxygenation at tissue or cellular level whilst hypoxemia is a suboptimal normal partial pressure of oxygen. Hypoxia and hypoxemia are interrelated, as untreated hypoxemia will ultimately result in hypoxia.  It should also be noted...

Mock inspections are a great way to prepare for real-life inspections from regulatory agencies such as CAP and JCAHO. But where do you start? And most importantly, what should you look for? Lou Ann Wyer, Clinical Specialist, POCT at the Virginia-based Sentara Laboratory Services and Theresa Kulik, Point-of-care...

Ever since the landmark document “To err is human” [1] was released, patient safety has been the paramount objective in US hospitals. “Patient safety” became the catch phrase and focus for all activities; a trend that was rapidly taken up by the rest of the world’s hospitals. Suddenly a new catch phrase – “lean” – ...