Applications of point-of-care testing (POCT) for diagnostic biomarker measurement in healthcare have increased significantly in recent years in a wide range of clinical scenarios. These include infectious disease, critical care, cardiology and other areas of emergency medicine. Traditionally, routine clinical...

In an exclusive acutecaretesting.org interview, Dr Mario Plebani, Head of the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University Hospital of Padova, Italy and international patient safety advocate, talks about how laboratory, clinicians and manufacturers can work together to reduce errors in testing and diagnosing...

Chest pain is a frequent cause of hospitalization and comprises a significant proportion of the acute medical workload in the western world. This issue is compounded for those living in regional or remote communities due to limited access to pathology services and tertiary-referral institutions. Evidence suggests...

It is estimated that a majority of all laboratory medicine errors are errors that occur during the preanalytical phase of the laboratory testing cycle. Such errors have a significant impact on patient safety, staff workload, and hospital costs.  Correctly identifying patients and avoiding specimen-labeling errors are...

With the use of a new Data Management System (DMS) software program [1], the majority of Point Of Care Testing (POCT) equipment throughout the Waikato District Health Board region has been connected to the Laboratory Information System (LIS) and the Hospital Information System (HIS). Prior to the new DMS, viewing...

Introduction of point–of-care testing (POCT) in hospitals requires the use of principles of change management. Manufacturers can support this process. E-learning programs adapted to the local situation with regular updates, a centralized accreditation and user-registration system and service level agreements are...

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...

Reprinted from AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CRITICAL CARE, November 2006, Volume 15, No 6, 595-599 Hudson TL, Dukes SF, Reilly K. Use of local anesthesia for arterial puncture. Copyright with permission from American Journal of Critical Care BACKGROUND Except for intravenous therapy, arterial access is the most common...

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. Not only did the quality of processes in the preanalytical phase improve, but also the automatic calculation of pO₂(A-a), for APACHE...

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...