Our next meeting will be August 6 at Samaritan North and the proposed topic will be BNP

Meeting Minutes

A very informative presentation on “Point of Care Coagulation Testing” was given by Marcia Zucker, PhD, Director of Clinical Research for International Technidyne Corporation. 

Slides from Dr. Zucker’s presentation are available for participants’ review.  To download the file, please use the following instructions (Download times will vary due to the size of the files and the speed of your connection):

• Right click on the title below

• Coagulation Testing

• Choose 'Save Target As'

• Save the file to your desktop

Thanks to Pam Kotynski from Bethesda North, Cincinnati for coordinating the speaker presentation. Thanks also to Jason Forchione and Clinical Technology, Inc. for providing the lunch.

Discussion after the presentation was facilitated by Pat Kraft, POCT Coordinator, Good Samaritan Hospital, Dayton. The following items were discussed:

1.       The next meeting is scheduled for August 6, 2003 at Samaritan North Health Center. Lisa Berger and the group from CompuNet Clinical Laboratory in Dayton will be coordinating the speaker presentation(s). Lisa has been in touch with Biosite regarding a presentation on BNP. She asked for the group’s input, and feedback indicated interest in a general discussion of cardiac markers in addition to BNP.

2.       Pat asked if any participants had recently undergone CAP or JCAHO inspections. New checklist items for blood gas specimens and physician performed testing found in the latest revision of the CAP Point-of-Care Testing checklist (November, 2002), were brought to the group’s attention.

3.       Pat informed the group of an article in the January, 2003 issue of The American Journal of Medicine titled “Failure of health care professionals to interpret fecal occult blood tests accurately”.

4.       A participant expressed an interest in conducting a salary survey of Point of Care Coordinators, and the group agreed that it was a good idea. It was decided to conduct an informal survey immediately indicating each participant’s hourly rate, and to develop a more formal survey to be conducted at the August meeting. Pat Kraft will compile results of the informal survey. Cathy Hargrove from Fairfield Medical Center, Lancaster will develop the formal survey. Participants were asked to bring the salary range for their position to the next meeting.

5.       Participants from Health Alliance, Cincinnati volunteered to plan the speaker presentation for the November meeting. An idea for topic/speaker for this meeting was to have an RN discuss point of care testing from the nursing perspective.

6.       Health Alliance has purchased the series of three ASCP teleconferences on point of care testing, and invited participants to attend any of the series as their guests. Topics include Point of Care Billing (March 19), Cardiac Markers (March 26) and New Technologies (April 2). Contact Elizabeth Porter for more information.

7.       Systems for inventory management and purchasing of point of care supplies and reagents were discussed. Participants from Children’s Hospital, Columbus described their system that is entirely centralized in the laboratory, with revenue from all testing coming back to the laboratory. Most participants’ hospitals have a fragmented system, with costs and revenues being spread over several different areas.

8.       The use of nitrazine test paper by the ER to check eyes following a chemical splash was discussed. It was stated that this is an unapproved use of the test paper, and there is no known protocol for this type of testing.

9.       A participant asked for feedback on hospitals using either a mobile or free-standing STAT lab for ER point of care testing. One participant described the proposed system for her hospital that will involve a STAT lab with a limited test menu in the ER, operated by laboratory personnel.

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