Would anyone be interested in sharing procedures, training checklists, competency checklists, etc. for the ECHO instrument?

The instrument comes with "recommended procedures" on a CD. Are people rewriting these or using them as-is?

So far I have modified the daily startup procedure. The bulk of it is copied from the Immucor procedure, but I added a lot of specifics. A copy is attached. (I write the procedures in HTML, but the attachment is printed to a PDF file.)

Galileo Echo Daily Startup.pdf

Here is a copy of the Daily Maintenance form for the ECHO. It is redone as a word document.

GalileoEchoMaintenanceRecord.doc

Just like to find out how folk using the ECHO, handle failure of the 'washer daily residual volume ' weight checks

Thanks

Rashmi,

Are you talking about the daily residual volume check where you just inspect the wells or the actual weighing check (monthly)?

We have never had a failure of the weighing step. If the daily check looks too wet, we change out the strips and that has always solved the problem.

If that didn't work for the daily inspection, I'd do the actual weighing. If it was out, I'd call Immucor!

Linda Frederick

Hi Linda,

We are required to perform res. volume check daily by actually weighing the strips for the ECHO and weekly for our Galileo. we regularly see weighing failures, and therefore need to repeat a number of times to show consistency and that we are not 'testing into compliance'.

Rashmi,

Are you talking about the daily residual volume check where you just inspect the wells or the actual weighing check (monthly)?

We have never had a failure of the weighing step. If the daily check looks too wet, we change out the strips and that has always solved the problem.

If that didn't work for the daily inspection, I'd do the actual weighing. If it was out, I'd call Immucor!

Linda Frederick

Like Linda, we have never had a failure with the Daily Residual Volume Check where you just visually inspect the wells after the washing phase. (However, I'm confused about Linda's comment on "changing out the strips" if they encounter a problem. Linda, are you using the same Capture strip every day for this test?)

If our Monthly Washer Check (where we weigh the strips before and after) was unacceptable, I would clean up the washer, using the little stylet to clean out the aperatures (where the saline is dispensed.) If that didn't work, I'd call Immucor.

Edited November 23, 200915 yr by L106

dmpollock - I think your Echo Daily Startup document is lovely! Looks like you are doing great! I don't think you need help!

I used the "recommended procedures" that Immucor provided on a disc and edited/modified them slightly (similarly to what you did.) (Minor variation: I made the "Preparation of PBS" a separate procedure and spelled out spelled out the acceptable range for the pH, etc.) (P.S. I noticed that you did not list A and B Reverse Cells in your list of "Reagents"?)

I found it useful to have one procedure for "General Information & Miscellaneous Tips" and listed all those important "little" things (ie: checking for air bubbles in reagents, how & when to use the hand-held bar code reader, warning to not let the instrument run out of PBS, etc.)

Wouldn't it be nice if the procedures used in the U.S and U.K for this piece of equipment was the same ? We have been told that the weighing must be performed daily.