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Tag Archives: Q-Probes

Study of inpatient test utilization practices set to begin

May 2020—Like a top 40 radio hit, test utilization is a topic that can sometimes seem to be overplayed. But the COVID-19 pandemic brings into sharp relief its importance. “What we’ve seen is organizations that have more mature test utilization efforts in place may be better able to handle these crises,” says Peter L. Perrotta, MD, professor and chair of pathology, anatomy, and laboratory medicine at West Virginia University School of Medicine and director of pathology services, West Virginia University Health System.

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Mislabeling, wrong-blood-in-tube errors rare but there

November 2015—Blood is thicker than water, the saying goes. And thanks to a recent Q‑Probes, the rates of mislabeled specimens submitted for ABO blood typing and of wrong-blood-in-tube errors are now as clear as water. The mislabeling rate hasn’t changed much since a similar Q‑Probes study was performed in 2007. The 2015 Q‑Probes, “Blood Bank Safety Practices,” reviewed 41,333 specimens and found that 306, or 0.74 percent, were mislabeled. The previous study looked at 112,112 specimens, of which 1,258, or 1.12 percent, were mislabeled.

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Delta checks as safety net: how used, how useful?

September 2015—There was a time when Michael L. Talbert, MD, didn’t spend much time thinking about delta checks in his laboratory. “I would periodically look at them, but I didn’t put a whole lot of thought into ranges or into which analytes were most efficient or effective,” says Dr. Talbert, who is chair of pathology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and chief of service and medical director of pathology and laboratory services at OU Medical System, Oklahoma City.

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LIS to EHR: Is results transmission what it should be?

January 2015—While no one would question the virtues of accurate laboratory results, a recently concluded Q-Probes study is a new reminder that alone they’re not enough. Results should be reviewed before a lab goes live with a new interface that transmits results to the electronic health record, as well as when changes are made at the laboratory or EHR level that could alter test resulting. They also should be reviewed periodically, say the authors of the study, titled “Validating Laboratory Results in Electronic Health Records.”

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Is molecular AP testing in sync with guidelines?

November 2014—Molecular testing, on a steep growth curve in anatomic pathology, is increasingly providing decisive guidance for treatment of cancer patients. But while guidelines on clinical relevance and performance of common molecular tests are available and widely used in theory, to date there has been limited information on how well requests for molecular testing in AP laboratories are adhering to the guidelines.

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Dropping the ball on critical value POC glucose results?

December 2013—Prompt reporting of critical laboratory results is considered an important patient safety goal. But for one of the most commonly performed tests, point-of-care glucose, there has been limited information about how critical results are handled. A new CAP Q-Probes study finds there is a great deal of variability. In addition to having widely differing critical result cutoff values, many laboratories are not repeating critical POC glucose test results for verification despite the relative high rate of erroneous results on first measurement.

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Cancelled lab tests—study analyzes why

September 2013—A handful, a fraction of a percent, a tiny portion. In most institutions, that’s about how many tests are cancelled after they’ve been ordered and a specimen has been sent to the laboratory. But even that small number can have significant quality implications. The authors of the Q-Probes study, ”Reasons for Test Cancellation,” looked at more than a million specimen accessions at several dozen institutions, to get a fix on why tests are being cancelled and to gain insight into how laboratories can bring that number down. As the study makes clear, there is definitely room for improvement.

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