This is the second of two articles about the risks and benefits of red-cell transfusion directed at healthcare professionals without any particular transfusion expertise. The focus of the first article was the risks and the extensive measures taken to minimize those risks. For this second article, attention turns to...

Although often of life-saving benefit, transfusion of donated red cells is associated with considerable potential risk for the recipient patient. This article, directed at healthcare professionals without any particular transfusion expertise, outlines these risks and the measures taken to minimize them. Particular...

Reprinted with permission from Elsevier from "Neonate capillary blood gas reference values", by Jocelyne Cousineau, Suzanne Anctil, Ana Carceller, Monique Gonthier and Edgard E. Delvin, CLINICAL BIOCHEMISTRY, Vol no 38, 2005, pp 905-907. Copyright 2005 by Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. OBJECTIVES Because...

Laboratorians need to take ownership of errors, identifying, analyzing and reducing them, thereby increasing patient safety. A Client Services Department, customer care representatives, a service improvement coordinator, “morning report”, electronic error tracking and reporting mechanisms, point-of-care support...

Hemoglobin is the oxygen-carrying protein contained in red blood cells (erythrocytes). Although normally present in only trace amounts, there are three species of hemoglobin that cannot transport oxygen.  The three species, collectively called dyshemoglobins because of their functional redundancy, are methemoglobin,...

Methods for the measurement of hemoglobin (Hb) were first developed well over a century ago, so that hemoglobin was among the first diagnostic blood tests available to clinicians during the first decades of the 20th century when laboratory medicine was in its infancy.  Today it is the most frequently requested blood...

As point-of-care testing (POCT) becomes more popular in healthcare institutions because of its ability to deliver high-quality results at the bedside, point-of-care coordinators (POCCs) are becoming increasingly tasked with controlling costs. To deal with this responsibility, POCCs often turn to equipment to solve...

Lately, everybody seems to be talking about reducing testing errors and improving patient safety. But where do you begin? The answer may be to look beyond the error itself and instead focus on what is causing it. Michael Astion, Associate Professor, Director of the University of Washington’s Reference Laboratory...

The University College London Hospitals (UCLH) is one of the largest NHS trusts in England. The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital houses the Trust's gynecology, obstetric and neonatal services. At the neonatal unit, blood gas monitoring has historically been done by a combination of blood gas...

In 2001, Belgian professor Greet Van den Berghe, PhD, and her colleagues at the Leuven University Hospital began a small revolution with the publication of the 2001 study “Intensive insulin therapy in critically ill patients”. According to the study, tighter glucose control based on insulin therapy lowered rates of...