Part 1 of a 2-part series: Investigation of Rapid Blood Culture Diagnostic Testing

• April 2020
• Ripal Jariwala, PharmD, BCIDP, AAHIVP
• Nicholas Piccicacco, PharmD, BCIDP, AAHIVP
• Kristen Zeitler, BS, PharmD, BCPS

This is part one of a 2-part article. Rapid blood diagnostics implementation will be covered in Part 2. Bacterial and fungal bloodstream infections are significant causes of morbidity, mortality, and health care-associated costs. Furthermore, it has been found that insufficient initial antimicrobial therapy for patients in septic shock is associated with a five-fold increase in mortality.1 To... Read more

• Read Article
• View Digital Edition

Part 1 of a 2-part series: Navigating Syphilis Diagnostic Changes

• April 2020
• Aaron Samson, MBA, MB(ASCP)CM

Over the course of the last two years, Clinical Pathology Laboratories’ (CPL) main laboratory in Austin, Texas was involved in two large-scale transitions involving syphilis confirmatory testing. In 2018, our lab transitioned from the manual rapid plasma reagin flocculation test to a rapid plasma reagin (RPR) assay-based automated test system, the AIX1000 RPR from Gold Standard Diagnostics.... Read more

• Read Article
• View Digital Edition

Target Pre-analytical Errors for Quality Improvement

• April 2020
• Qing H Meng, PhD, MD, DABCC, FAACC

Of the three primary phases in the total laboratory testing process, the pre-analytical phase (generally defined from the time a laboratory request is made by a physician until the sample is ready for analysis) covers laboratory processes including test selection, patient biological variation, patient preparation, and specimen collection, transportation, processing, and storage. Any variation... Read more

• Read Article
• View Digital Edition

Managing Spills in the Laboratory

• April 2020
• Daniel J. Scungio, MT(ASCP)SLS, CQA(ASQ)

The work of most clinical laboratories involves handling chemical and biological materials, and though large spills of these materials are not common, the risks associated with an accidental release can be substantial. Spills can create slip hazards and dangerous chemical exposure hazards, and even introduce contact with infectious biohazardous organisms. Thus, knowing how to expeditiously and... Read more

• Read Article
• View Digital Edition

Chemistry Analyzers

• State of Laboratory Technology 2019

Chemistry analyzers and integrated chemistry automation is common in clinical laboratories of all sizes, the scope and sophistication of which depends largely on volume. While the bulk of facilities use medium and high-volume instruments, many facilities incorporate low-volume analyzers into their workflow to scale testing to demand. Today’s chemistry analyzers tackle a number of functions... Read more

• Read Article
• View Digital Edition