The April meeting of the Virginia POCC’s was held at the McGuire Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia.

The Multi-purpose room was arranged for vendor tables around the periphery and the attendees seated before a large overhead screen for the presentation.  40 Registrants and 14 vendors with 21 vendor representatives were present for this dynamic meeting.

To review items and topics discussed at this meeting, click on the appropriate link below:

Speaker presentation:

Chris Fetters presented “Implementing POCT Connectivity Interfaces:  CIC/NCCLS POCT 1-A Update.”  A lively discussion after the presentation was a great lead-off for the vendor fair that followed.

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Vendor Fair Participants:

The 14 vendors with 21 vendor representatives present, included:

• Abbott Diagnostics

• i-STAT Corporation

• Biosite

• Biostar

• Careside

• Cholestech

• Helena

• Instrumentation Laboratory

• Lifescan

• Medical Automation Systems

• Nova

• Roche Diagnostics

• Spectral

• Vitron/Hemocue

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Business Meeting:
The attendees were asked if an elected board was of interest at this time.  This would consist of a President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. 

17 indicated “Yes.”  2 indicated “No.”  Those not wanting to establish a board at this time felt it was premature and that the participation changes with each meeting.  There are 13 other POCC groups across the US, but only one at this time with an elected board.  The members felt they wanted more information regarding an elected board and that it should be mailed ahead/posted on the website before the next meeting.

The group decided that three meetings/year is most beneficial.  They thought UVA may be a good choice if the meeting was to be on the west side of the state.  No registrants from UVA were at the business meeting to provide input.  Another suggestion may be to do a joint session with the fall State CLMA Annual meeting.

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Other topics for educationals were:

• On-line competency

• POCT inspections

• Understanding interfaces

• Open Forum  Q&A’s

• Time/Stress Mgmt

Additional topics from critiques:

• POC billing 

• CBT for non-laboratorians

• QA/QC programs/mgmt

• Organ specific topics

• ABG’s

• Corporate compliance & POCT

• New product information

• Coag testing

• Manual tests

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The largest number of respondents listed POCT inspections, interpretation of standards, how to meet these standards and sharing of ideas for a future meeting.  Thanks for all your ideas.  If you have suggestions for speakers, please forward to Lou Ann Wyer at lawyer@sentara.com.

Critiques of April 30, 2002 POCC meeting:

• 30 returned  (30/40=75%)

• With a scale of 1-5 where 1=Not Applicable and 5=Extremely Applicable

Chris Fetters’ Presentation:  

• 100% of the returned critiques rated a 4 or 5.

Vendor Fair:  

• 92% of the returned critiques rated the vendor fair a 4 or 5.

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Many thanks to the vendors that sponsored this meeting:

Organizers:

• Lou Ann Wyer, Sentara Healthcare

• Carol Kirchoff, McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center

• Gwen Harris, Riverside Regional Medical Center

• Janet Burckell, Mary Washington Hospital

• Joanie Thompson, Bon Secours St. Mary’s Richmond

Adjourned