In the majority of U.S. healthcare institutions, patient wristbands do not contain barcodes, creating a situation where patient data is manually typed into a database or point-of-care device, leaving plenty of room for error.  In light of error statistics issued by the United Kingdom’s National Patient Safety Agency...

Measurement of plasma/serum sodium concentration is one of the most frequently requested blood tests in clinical practice. Although usually performed in the laboratory, the test is also available at the point of care using technology incorporated into blood gas and other point-of-care analyzers. In health, sodium...

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...

This is the forth and final essay in a series of four essays on www.acutecaretesting.org.  The first essay, "Quality control in theory and practice – a gap analysis", raised the question: Has “the system” given front-line laboratory workers the knowledge and tools they need to make quality control decisions wisely? Or ...

Hospital do Coração (HCor) in São Paolo, Brazil is a hospital for cardiac patients, many of whom are children and newborns. Cardiac patients are closely monitored with respect to acid base and blood gases, and even the newborns have several arterial and venous blood samples drawn daily. Dr Alberto Duarte from the...

The principal function of the protein hemoglobin contained in red blood cells is transport of oxygen in inspired air from lungs to tissue cells. Although normally present in only trace amounts, there are three species of hemoglobin that cannot transport oxygen. The three species, collectively called the dyshemoglobins ...

What does it take to create and maintain a quality point-of-care program in a world-renowned healthcare institution? acutecaretesting.org recently asked that question to Paula Santrach, MD, Interim Chair of the Dept. of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the Mayo Clinic in the US. She came back with a list* of 10...

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...