RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A Novel Approach to Managing Hemolyzed Specimens
JF American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science
JO Clin Lab Sci
FD American Society of Chemistry and Laboratory Science
SP 153
OP 157
DO 10.29074/ascls.26.3.153
VO 26
IS 3
A1 Lester Pretlow
A1 Shamala Johnson
A1 Barbara Russell
A1 Bridget Evans
YR 2013
UL http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/26/3/153.abstract
AB Hemolyzed specimens continue to cost the laboratory time and money. However, the core laboratory at Georgia Regents Health System, Inc. has instituted a novel approach to managing this problem. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the laboratory's new approach had a significant impact on the turn-around time (TAT) and cost of processing hemolyzed and non-hemolyzed specimens in the laboratory. The investigators queried the laboratory information systems for hemolyzed and non-hemolyzed specimens categorized as routine or STAT from the core laboratory and calculated statistical differences between the groups with respect to TAT and cost.The investigators found a statistically significant difference in the time it takes to process STAT hemolyzed specimens versus non-hemolyzed specimens with the new approach. Because of the new approach, hemolyzed specimens were actually processed as fast as, or faster than non-hemolyzed specimens in the core laboratory.ABBREVIATIONS: GRU - Georgia Regents University, GRSU - Georgia Regents Health System, TAT - Turn-around time, LIS - Laboratory Information System, RT - Report Times, TSC - Technical Staff Cost