As point-of-care testing (POCT) continues to expand in the hospital environment, the desire of physicians to participate in the performance of testing may increase. This article discusses the required competencies for a physician who wishes to be involved in laboratory testing and some practical considerations for...

The National Kidney Disease Education Program (NKDEP) Laboratory Working Group reviewed problems related to serum creatinine measurement for estimating glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and prepared recommendations to standardize and improve creatinine measurement. The NKDEP recommends using the estimating equation...

Clinical initiatives to maintain blood glucose (BG) within a more normal range have emerged over the last decade as a growing trend in clinical management of patients in acute care settings. This trend has grown due to the increased focus of research in glycemic control (GC) and results indicating that GC is...

This is the second in a series of articles. The first essay, “Quality control in theory and practice – a gap analysis”, published here in January 2006 raised the question: Has “the system” given front-line laboratory workers the knowledge and tools they need to make quality control decisions wisely – or is there a...

Effectively written policies and procedures can help contribute to an error-free POCT program. Sentara Healthcare has incorporated policy and procedure development into their safety program. It is coined Focus & Simplify and is about improving the effectiveness of work processes and procedure documentation.  Through ...

Interview Fetal scalp Blood Sampling (FBS) – not exactly wishful thinking for the mother, nor for the obstetrician? The procedure is regarded as cumbersome, the sample quality is questionable and the consequences of the result may be instrumental vaginal delivery or Cesarian Section (CS). acutecaretesting.org has...

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...

Millions of times every day, in a myriad of distinctive laboratories around this globe, front-line workers make the final decision on the quality of results they report. If they decide the quality is “OK”, patient results are released to impact clinical decisions, and proficiency values reflect the overall ability...

Lack of homogeneity of a blood sample can lead to incorrect results. In this paper, the quality requirements of a sample prior to mixing, the type of samples, sample collection devices and tools and mechanics of mixing will be highlighted. Issues related to the mixing of samples intended for hematological and blood...

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...