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Article
January 2007
All you need to know about mock inspections
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...
Point-of-care testing
Quality assurance
Glucose
Article
January 2007
Emergency assessment of oxygenation
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...
Blood gases/acid-base
Bilirubin
Article
October 2006
Mayo Clinic’s 10 key factors for creating and maintaining a quality POC program
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...
Point-of-care testing
Quality assurance
Glucose
Article
October 2006
What can you do to close the QC gap?
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 ...
Quality assurance
Article
October 2006
Taking the myth out of capillary sampling
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...
Neonatology
Preanalytical phase
Blood gases/acid-base
Article
October 2006
Methemoglobin
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 ...
Blood gases/acid-base
Article
July 2006
An audit of the patient’s experience of arterial blood gas testing
Reprinted with permission from
British Journal of Nursing, 2004, Vol 13, No
9.
Arterial puncture is the most common method used to
obtain a sample for the measurement of arterial blood gases (ABGs)
and is essential to guide the prescription of long-term oxygen
therapy (LTOT) in patients with chronic hypoxic lung...
Preanalytical phase
Blood gases/acid-base
Article
July 2006
Doctor testing and competency for POCT
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...
Information management
Point-of-care testing
Article
July 2006
History of GFR and practical issues related to implementation
Although creatinine clearance has been the mainstay for
estimating glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in laboratories for the
past half-century, prediction equations based on serum creatinine
and other routine serum analytes are now available which enable
reporting of a calculated GFR using the Modification of Diet in...
Glucose
Article
April 2006
I found the gap… it’s in the basement!
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...
Quality assurance