kholshoe

Thank you Rravkin for your input! It is quite helpful!

Hi everyone, We have recently been tasked with trying to standardize all our system's subsidiaries in terms of criteria to send peripheral slides back to a pathologist for review. The overall goal, of course, is to cut down on unnecessary slide reviews being sent back (normals, etc). Our subsidiary has historically used a very detailed set of guidelines (for example: not just any new anemic patient - but one with a hemoglobin of <6) with values within the rules to drive the criteria. Most of our sister subsidiaries are using a much more trimmed down set of criteria (for example: anemia, pancytopenia, etc.) without any values present. It is our lab's feeling that this is very subjective and would likely lead to even MORE slides being sent to a pathologist. I'd be interested in hearing what other labs do as trying to search for references online has been completely unsuccessful. I'm thinking perhaps there isn't consensus because it's all really driven by the medical director/pathologist to begin with. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Hi everyone! Please take a few moments and read my latest blog article on marketing to the younger crowd for lab! Would love to hear your thoughts https://www.staffready.com/marketing-laboratory-career-millennials/

Hey there! Sorry, we use the XN analyzers for body fluids, but we don't report out the two-part differential. Our providers like more detail at our site, but that isn't to say it won't work at other sites. We do manual body fluid differentials and report percentages of neutrophils, lymphs, monos/macros, mesothelials, and any "other" cell types that don't fit those categories.

Thanks everyone for your responses! I know alot of other sites in our hospital system that use the Sedimat 15 Plus are are moderately pleased with it. I have been interested in the iSED for awhile now and actually have a rep coming to demo it tomorrow. I've heard that people love using it and it's easy, but some literature online is citing limitations with it. Has anyone else heard anything about it?

Hi everyone! Looking for some opinions on sed rate analyzers. We currently use a Streck ESR Auto Plus that may need to be replaced soon. Not sure I want to stick with Streck as it seems there are more efficient options out there now. Any thoughts?

Thank you so much! I'm happy to hear you could relate. Please share this with your fellow lab colleagues. We are such an important part of healthcare.

Hi everyone, I would really encourage you to take a moment to read a blog article I wrote regarding a lab scientist's connection to their patients from "behind the scenes". This subject is very near and dear to my heart and I hope others find that it resonates with them as well. Please feel free to share any thoughts below the article in the comments section. Thank you for taking the time to click! And as always, thank you for being an integral part of our healthcare system. https://www.staffready.com/patient-behind-scenes/

Hi everyone, I would really encourage you to take a moment to read a blog article I wrote regarding a lab scientist's connection to their patients from "behind the scenes". This subject is very near and dear to my heart and I hope others find that it resonates with them as well. Please feel free to share any thoughts below the article in the comments section. Thank you for taking the time to click! And as always, thank you for being an integral part of our healthcare system. https://www.staffready.com/patient-behind-scenes/

Hi everyone, I would really encourage you to take a moment to read a blog article I wrote regarding a lab scientist's connection to their patients from "behind the scenes". This subject is very near and dear to my heart and I hope others find that it resonates with them as well. Please feel free to share any thoughts below the article in the comments section. Thank you for taking the time to click! And as always, thank you for being an integral part of our healthcare system. https://www.staffready.com/patient-behind-scenes/

Hi everyone, I would really encourage you to take a moment to read a blog article I wrote regarding a lab scientist's connection to their patients from "behind the scenes". This subject is very near and dear to my heart and I hope others find that it resonates with them as well. Please feel free to share any thoughts below the article in the comments section. Thank you for taking the time to click! And as always, thank you for being an integral part of our healthcare system. https://www.staffready.com/patient-behind-scenes/

Hello! Our lab has two Sysmex XN analyzers, the XN line, and the SP-10 slidemaker/stainer. We do not have the Cellavision nor do we have SoftLab (we use Cerner for our LIS). I can't speak for the Cellavision or the LIS software - but if you need any help with the XN series analyzers or stainer, let me know!

I vote Sysmex all the way! We switched from Beckman Coulter LH 750/LH 500 analyzers a year ago and went with the Sysmex XN model series. Super minimal maintenance and very "forward-thinking" in their quality control process and software.

Does anyone out there perform this type of testing? If so - is there any way I could look at a CAP Participant Data Summary for one of these surveys? We are looking at this and are curious about setting appropriate grading ranges. Any help you could provide would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi Joseph! Our Sysmex XN series analyzers do, in fact, differentiate between nucleated cells and WBCs. It will give both a total nucleated cell count AND a WBC count. We had planned to simply report the WBC and continue counting all nucleated cells in our diffs (neutrophils, lymphs, monos, macrophages, mesothelial cells, etc). Some of our techs are thinking that, if we provide a differential that includes non-WBCs, then we need to report the total never of nucleated cells (not just the WBC count). On the other hand, if you look at all results as an evaluation of the fluid as a whole ("here's my diff on the fluid as a whole" instead of "here's my diff on the WBCS I reported"), I'm not sure how important the actual TNC number really is. Our medical director feels the providers will be more interested in the separated WBC count. Any other thoughts?

Hi Joseph! Our Sysmex XN series analyzers do, in fact, differentiate between nucleated cells and WBCs. It will give both a total nucleated cell count AND a WBC count. We had planned to simply report the WBC and continue counting all nucleated cells in our diffs (neutrophils, lymphs, monos, macrophages, mesothelial cells, etc). Some of our techs are thinking that, if we provide a differential that includes non-WBCs, then we need to report the total never of nucleated cells (not just the WBC count). On the other hand, if you look at all results as an evaluation of the fluid as a whole ("here's my diff on the fluid as a whole" instead of "here's my diff on the WBCS I reported"), I'm not sure how important the actual TNC number really is. Our medical director feels the providers will be more interested in the separated WBC count. Any other thoughts?

Hi everyone, We are implementing a new hematology analyzer (Sysmex XN series), and will be performing automated body fluid counts on this platform. For those of you who perform automated counts - do you report a total nucleated cell count, a white blood cell count, or both? What cells are included in your differential? We had planned to report WBC and RBC counts off the analyzer. Our differentials include neutrophils, lymphs, monos/macrophages, mesothelial cells, and "other" cells. Since our differential includes non-WBC nucleated cells - some techs feel that means we need to include the total nucleated cell count on the report (not just the WBC count). Thoughts?

Hi everyone, I'm interested in knowing how other facilities deal with bone marrow specimens/processing. A few specific questions I have: 1. What department is responsible for creating bone marrow slides? 2. What department is responsible for staining bone marrow slides and what stain is used? 3. What is your hematology department's role in bone marrow processing? 4. Does your hematology department perform bone marrow differentials (med techs) or are these done by someone else (who?)? Any information you could provide would be very helpful. Thank you!

Hi all, So, I'm crunching data for our retic method correlations (instrument vs manual count). I'm struggling to understand the reasons behind the way this was calculated in the past. I'm curious: if you're doing this type of correlation - what are your targets (i.e. limit on % diff between tech and analyzer, etc..) and how did you establish that these were acceptable? Any help you can provide would be great. Thanks!

Anyone using Chronolog for a platelet function analyzer? I've been in talks with the rep, but I'm having a hard time finding anyone that is currently using it. Their website leaves something to be desired....Trying to decide if this is one worth investigating further....

Thanks everyone! I think that helps clarify things for me. I'll be having a student work with me on comparing these two analyzers and doing a cost-analysis and additional research. If we have any other questions - I know where to ask!

Thank you, Scott! Just to clarify - the PFA-100 does not screen for Plavix therapy, correct? It will only screen for Aspirin? And, from what I understood - the Verify Now will screen for both. Does one get more use over the other in your facility?

Is anyone out there using either Verify Now or the PFA-100 for platelet function testing? I'd like to hear some thoughts on either of these. We are currently gathering info on both...

Nziegler - thank you so much for your insight! VERY helpful! You can ramble anytime We are currently looking at including the slide-maker-stainer with our setup. However, I'm not sure we'll get the use out of Cellavision as it is intended..... So glad you responded!