Welcome
North Carolina POC Network
President Tina Koonce, from Onslow Memorial
Hospital, welcomed attendees to the Summer
meeting held at CarolinaEast Medical Center in
historic New Bern, NC on Friday, June 3, 2016.
Thank you to CarolinaEast
POCC
Jennifer Parsons for hosting the meeting,
managing the RSVPs and providing the venue.
Thanks also to Abbott for
providing the lunch for this meeting.
Sepsis Presentation
Kirchick discussed sepsis including the decrease
of mortality due to early detection and why
biomarkers tested by the laboratory or point of
care are an essential part of diagnosis.
Sepsis is a
serious medical condition caused by an
overwhelming immune response to infection.
Immune chemicals released into the blood to
combat the infection trigger widespread
inflammation, which leads to blood clots and
leaky vessels. This results in impaired blood
flow, which damages the body’s organs by
depriving them of nutrients and oxygen.
In severe cases, one or more organs fail. In the
worst cases, blood pressure drops, the heart
weakens and the patient spirals toward septic
shock. Once this happens, multiple organs—lungs,
kidneys, liver—may quickly fail and the patient
can die.
Sepsis is a major challenge in the intensive
care unit, where it’s one of the leading causes
of death. It arises unpredictably and can
progress rapidly.
CLIA Presentation
Paul Williams, a Laboratory
Consultant from CLIA facilitated “Hot Topics” which
included attracting the next generation to careers
in laboratory medicine.
Roundtable
Discussions
Our roundtable discussion
allowed coordinators to discuss current challenges
in point of care testing: Staffing and workload
among growing point of care testing, testing
personnel requirements, provider performed testing,
and lack of compliance despite great efforts.
