Some items have been deferred for a MLA-specific meeting

Chemistry Bench:

Reminder that if you take the last sleeve of a reagent you are required to pull a new box.

Drawing Therapeutic Drug Levels (PTN, DIG, etc):

Prior to collecting sample obtain dosing information from nursing staff

This will allow you to know if the collection time is appropriate and notify staff that they can soon give the next dose.

STH Envelopes:

We will soon run out of “Confidential” envelopes. New ones will not be purchased until after the hospital completes its rebranding (AUG 2016)

Use generic envelopes and stamp “Confidential” when appropriate

Concerns regarding OBS:

NNSC (PKU’s)

Dr Farrell has advised us that many PKU’s are being rejected due to low volume (insufficient blood) or abrasions on the card (capillary tube dragged across surface).

Please ensure the entire circle is filled with blood. 2 full circles are often sufficient for testing

If you use a capillary tube let the blood flow out via capillary action; do not drag tube across paper

Possible Change to when we collect

Jen will talk to OBS regarding moving routine baby collections to 11:00 rounds

Additional time to precondition (warm) babies

Nursing staff can be on hand to assist with that sweet sweet sugar water

Glucose Testing on babies:

OBS instituted a clinical practice guideline (CPI) and assumed their glucometer was more accurate. There are differences between a glucometer and chemistry’s main analyzer. There are also differences between capillary and venous glucose values. Due to their interpretation of the CPI we may see more glucose collections at any time of the clock.

Glucometer is working within its allowable error

We can also run whole blood samples (capillary) on the ABL

Requires only a small volume

Remember to label sufficiently

Jen will instruct OBS to write “Venous” on the requisition when a venous sample is required.

Scheduling:

Theresa will schedule up to March 31 2017 for Core Lab

MLT II’s & Safety Officer:

When MLT’s on “2” they are not cover benches unless asked by Supervisor

When Safety Officer on “3” he is not to cover benches unless asked by Supervisor

If MLT’s or Safety Officers are scheduled on a bench and workload permits they can leave the bench but will need to check back frequently

0700 Micro Shift:

All positive blood cultures will be handled by 0800 micro shift so 0700 MLT can go on rounds

If there are several micro sick calls then JDB must approve them skipping rounds

If there are low numbers of collections and Core staff are confident they can handle the workload alone then the 0700 micro tech can skip rounds

Patients with Multiple Requisitions:

We can no longer combine requisitions on a single lab order because the responsible physician may not receive results timely in the EMR system.

One requisition = one lab order

When needed we can collect a single specimen and label it with multiple labels. This requires the MLT’s (Micro & Core) to retransmit results from instruments and change order number in instrument menu or transcribe data (manual tests) for all orders

Roundtable:

Mike will talk to Core Techs regarding CBC test code

Erin asks Core staff not to throw out the urine caps in Chemistry. Find a way to save them otherwise we run out of caps quickly

Joel wants anyone who can make it to Sally’s farewell party Friday June 3rd to RSVP immediately so he can provide numbers to Thorton’s.

MWA 01JUN2016