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...

Tartu University Hospital has improved the quality of blood gas testing in its clinical laboratory and critical care units by introducing an automatic system for blood gas analysis [1].

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 ...

Technology is available worldwide to help us carry out diversified tasks and work in an easier, faster, and more efficient way.  Furthermore, technology can help us prevent analyzer downtime and failures that may have serious consequences for both business and patients. This article gives an overview of some of the...

Reprinted and translated by permission of Danske Bioanalytikere, dbio from "Fra hæl eller håndryg", by Jytte Kristensen, dbio, vol no 4, 2007, pp 8-11. Copyright 2007 by dbio. Translated by Radiometer Medical ApS. Norwegian and Danish biomedical laboratory scientists disagree on best practice when collecting blood...

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...

How to implement improvements in hospital settings within a week Jens Weirsøe is one of Radiometer's most experienced Master Black Belts in Transactional Process Improvements (TPI or kaizen). He has facilitated 90 kaizen events in several countries (USA, Japan, Germany and Denmark), in several different industry...

In Geneva in 1821, a French nobleman Jacques Alexandre Le Jumeau, Vicomte de Kergaradec, became the pioneer of modern fetal monitoring. He described the sound of the fetal heartbeat, as he used the newly invented stethoscope (by Laennec, France 1819) and applied it to the abdominal wall of a pregnant woman [1]. The...