Accrediting Agencies

Hi, I just want to make sure my interpretation of counting tests for CBCs is correct. CLIA says For complete blood counts, each measured individual analyte that is ordered and reported is counted separately. So for example, if we did 100 CBCs, and we're counting WBC, RBC, Hgb, MCV, RDW, Plt count, Neut, lymph, mono, eos, and baso (11 tests) it's reported as 1100? Thank you in advance. Rachel

Hi, with the ESR auto plus being discontinued, with service support ending at the end of this year, I am looking for a replacement. I am looking at the I-sed. Does anyone have experience with this analyzer? If so, what are your thoughts about it?

I am trying to find recent references for some of my procedures that will meet JACO's 5 year requirement. For example, collection method for Nasal Smear for Eosinophils. My reference is from 2001. This is far from being a 5 year reference. Can anyone tell me where they get their references from? Thanks in advance !!

I currently started a small facility that uses Meditech as their LIS. They keep every analyzer printout regardless of the tests being interfaced. I know this was not what my old facility did, only keeping result printouts of non interfaced tests. However our QA coordinator is stating it is a requirement. This new facility is also JCAHO inspected, not CAP. Anyone care to share their experiences? Is this record retention that seems excessive to me really necessary?

I've been trying to figure out how to correlate the technologists differential with each other. There should be some sort of agreement but I cannot find anywhere on the net what is acceptable and what isn't. the recent diff that we all did the techs neutrophil counts agree right at 15% but the lymphocyte count the difference is something like 32%. I'm not concerned with monos on down as much but this patient had a high eos count which may be throwing things off somewhat. . Is there a better way of doing this? is this a requirement for JCAHO even? What is everyone else doing?

I have a friend who volunteers in a clinic in Honduras. She currently uses a hematocrit reader but would like to use a point of care hemoglobin instrument. Any suggestions? The climate control in her clinic is not reliable, and she would have to transport any instrument she chooses. Thank you for your help, Kerry

We were recently JCAHO inspected and the surveyor mentioned that calibration/verification was going away for hematology (maybe retics as well but he wasn't clear) Has anyone else heard this. I've done those so long now I'm almost afraid to stop. My director said the same thing. BUT he ALSO said we should be doing calibration/verification for fibrinogen. when we had the Stago we di do that with a high patient sample but the instrument did all the dilutions and calculations. Is anyone doing linearity for the Sysmex CA-660 instruments? If so what is the procedure? Thanks

I'm in the process of updating our Hematology manual. We have what I feel is a rather strange requirement. If we perform a manual differential, we are supposed to compare it to the auto diff and it has to agree within certain criteria: Percentages of Neutrophils and Lymphs have to agree within 10 cells and all "other" cells have to agree within 5 cells. Furthermore, the manual diff has to be recorded on the instrument printout in case there is a question about the results. I understand the logic behind double checking your diff results - avoids errors when performing the diff (wrong key type errors), but I have a problem with writing everything down on the printout. Curre…

How are other labs meeting the requirement for detection of unusual lab results for urinalysis-URN.20500?

I am the safety officer for our laboratory. Recently, a new employee mentioned that she had seen a regulation regarding lab footwear that excluded clogs as a acceptable shoe in the clinical lab. Of course, we have not allowed open toes or fabric shoes for a long time, but lots of folks wear leather or rubber clogs. I cannot find anything in OSHA or CAP that addresses this. Does anyone have a reference? Thanks,