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...

Iatrogenic phlebotomy loss resulting from the intensive clinical monitoring in the weeks immediately following birth remains the primary cause of neonatal anemia and the need for red-blood-cell (RBC) transfusion. Reducing RBC transfusion needs in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) requires new approaches for...

Investment in medical research is expected to have a payback; we assume that with the passage of time increased knowledge and understanding of disease process will inevitably lead to improved treatment and better outcome. This optimistic paradigm has proved valid for some of the major killer diseases, including heart...

The results of the above trial suggest that administration of rFVIIa would reduce patient exposure to the perils of blood-product transfusion, which are only now being fully recognized.  Increased awareness of the morbidity and mortality associated with transfusion of blood products has led to the implementation of...

Assessment of patient acid-base status is one of the principal uses of arterial blood gas analysis. Disturbance of acid-base, usually the result of abnormal accumulation of metabolic acids, most notably lactic acid, is a relatively frequent finding among critically ill patients.  Base deficit (BD), a blood gas...

Hailed by UK diabetic expert Professor Harry Keen as "one of the most important studies ever done for people with diabetes" when it was published in 1993, this influential clinical study was conducted by the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial Research Group (DCCT).  It settled once and for all a debate that had...

Massive hemorrhage is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among critically ill patients. Conventional treatment is based on surgical control of bleeding and transfusion of blood products including red cells, platelets and fresh frozen plasma. Despite optimal conventional care, bleeding sometimes proves impossible ...

Methods for the measurement of hemoglobin (Hb) were first developed well over a century ago, so that hemoglobin was among the first diagnostic blood tests available to clinicians during the first decades of the 20th century when laboratory medicine was in its infancy.  Today it is the most frequently requested blood...

Blood gases are measured from an arterial blood sample to evaluate the respiratory adequacy and oxygen status of the critically ill patient. For the adult patient, the arterial blood is sampled either by arterial puncture or from an indwelling catheter. In neonates and children, the wish to minimize iatrogenic blood...

Capillary blood sampling via a heel lance is the most common procedure performed in hospitalized neonates. Adequate training and supervision of the personnel performing the procedure is necessary to prevent/minimize inadequate sampling volumes, false laboratory results and complications such as pain. Efforts should be ...