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A Supplement To

CLINICAL LAB PRODUCTS

LAB
STORIES
Clinical labs share their challenges and successes at
improving everyday performance and outcomes

November 2015 | clpmag.com

get more

WITH
CLINICAL LAB PRODUCTS

Get a free issue of Clinical Lab Products!
Go to clpmag.com/subscribe for more information.

[ fromthe ]

editor

Teamwork
In its recent report on diagnostic
errors, Improving Diagnosis in Healthcare,
the Institute of Medicine emphasized
the importance of teamwork among
healthcare professionals involved in
the diagnostic process.1 Among the recommendations of its report, in fact,
IOM gave teamwork top billing:
Goal 1: Facilitate more-effective teamwork in the diagnostic process among
healthcare professionals, patients, and
their families.

In the fine print of its recommendations, IOM defines a number of ways
that labs should seek to improve teamwork among its collaborating healthcare professionals.

In recognition that the diagnostic process is a dynamic team-based activity,
healthcare organizations should ensure
that healthcare professionals have the
appropriate knowledge, skills, resources, and support to engage in teamwork
in the diagnostic process.

There should be no doubt about
the importance of suppliers for the
proper functioning of such diagnostic
teams. By providing resources suitable for use in diagnostic applications—from reagents and controls to
advanced instrumentation and finished
assays—suppliers help labs to keep
pace with increasing demands for higher throughput, faster turnaround times,
and greater diagnostic precision.

This supplement is devoted to telling the stories of labs that have worked
with their suppliers to ensure they can
provide high-quality testing services
for physicians and their patients. If
your lab also has a great story to tell,
we’d like to hear about it.
Steve Halasey
Chief Editor, CLP
shalasey@allied360.com
(626) 219-0199
REFERENCE
1. National Academies of Sciences,
Engineering, and Medicine. Improving diagnosis in healthcare. Balogh EP, Miller BT,
Ball JR, eds. Washington, DC: The National
Academies Press, 2015.

Catch the latest news about
the clinical lab industry.
CLP Prime, is your weekly source for the latest product news, technology
advancements, and upcoming events in the clinical lab industry.
» Sign up now for CLP Prime at clpmag.com/clpprime

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clpmag.com | November8/18/15
20155:57 PM
3

iSED: Most reliable way to secure
accurate patient results

A

s any lab manager knows, there is inherent variation in many
hematology tests, making it challenging for physicians to
adjust or refine treatment.
Zulma Irizarry, Lab Manager at Rheumatology Associates of South
Texas in San Antonio, was faced with this situation recently. Over the
course of a six-month period, one of the practice’s physicians, treating a patient with joint pain and arterial stenosis, ordered three ESRs
from the practice’s internal laboratory, and three additional tests from
an external laboratory.
Upon receiving the reports from both labs, the physician noted
markedly different results. The internal lab, which used the iSED
from ALCOR Scientific, obtained ESRs of less than 12 mm/hr. The
external lab, which used another automated ESR analyzer, reported
ESRs greater than 50 mm/hr in all three tests.
Zulma contacted ALCOR Scientific for help ensuring that the
physicians would remain confident in the iSED results generated by
her lab.
ALCOR promptly sent a specialist to Texas to investigate.
Together, Zulma and her ALCOR specialist repeated the patient’s
tests in both labs with fresh blood samples. Internally, they used
three methods to compare results: the iSED (SN 00059), iSED (SN
00319), and the manual ESR SEDI-RATE Westergren ESR System.

Consistent with ALCOR’s satisfaction guarantee, the iSED
results matched the Westergren ESR.
20 Thurber Boulevard
Smithfield, RI 02917
(800) 495-5270
http://alcorscientific.com/
diagnostic-systems/
esr-analyzers/

iSED 00059

iSED 00319

Westergren
ESR

Specimen ID

ESR result
(mm/hr)

ESR result
(mm/hr)

ESR result
(mm/hr)

72985

25/25

31/31

27/31

	

To reinforce their conclusion that iSED provided reliable ESR
results, Zulma and her ALCOR specialist worked together to test
an additional 61 samples from random patients, with a range of
ESR values from 2 to 104 mm/hr. They conducted a side-by-side
comparison using both the iSED (SN 00059) and the SEDI-RATE
Westergren methods.
The iSED and Westergren approaches resulted in an overall
98.5% correlation. The study proved the ALCOR claim of consistency with the CLSI Approved Standard Method.
“This analysis convinced us that iSED is the most reliable way
to secure accurate patient results. With iSED, our physicians know
they are getting a precise measurement, allowing them to provide
superior care of our patients with inflammatory disorders.”—Zulma
Irizarry, Rheumatology Associates of South Texas

the perfect ESR system
• Results in 20 Seconds
• No Disposables
• Full Random Access
• 100uL sample size
perfect for pediatrics

Sound too good to be true?
See what iSED users are saying...
“My night shift supervisor
put her arms around the
iSED this morning and she
told me, ‘Please don’t ever
take the iSED away. I wish
all of our instruments were
this fast and easy to use!’”
- Pat Rawluk

“I just wanted to let you
know what a successful
and easy transition it was
to change to the iSED. The
staff LOVES the analyzer…
ER physicians are happy the
results are quick!”
- Lois Conover

“After running the manual
Westergren method, we
found that the iSED significantly improved our
laboratory’s workflow by
reducing the hands-on time
for ESR testing.”
- Maureen Caraker

Doctor’s Hospital of Dallas, TX

Mary Greeley Medical Center, IA

Baystate Medical Center, MA

...and hundreds more similar stories!
WWW.ALCORSCIENTIFIC.COM
800-495-5270
Visit www.rsleads.com/504ml-002

20 Thur
Smithfie
WWW.A

Lab Stories: Case Study in
Medical-Grade Refrigeration
Critical Access Hospital benefits from standardizing cold storage

M

argaret Mary Health (MMH) is a critical
access hospital located in southeastern
Indiana, with a core clinical laboratory
as well as a satellite lab located in the oncology
and outpatient clinic. Several years ago, Annette
Gillman, MT(ASCP), Laboratory Manager at MMH,
realized the value of implementing medical-grade
refrigeration that is designed to maintain the
specific temperature ranges required for their
reagents and other temperature-sensitive products. Over time, refrigerators and freezers from
Helmer Scientific have been acquired for storage
of reagents, medications, vaccines, and patient

nourishment. By standardizing on a single vendor,
MMH has been able to achieve consistent storage
protocols, effective monitoring, and efficient inventory control.
Not only is maintaining strict temperature ranges vital to the quality of the stored products, it is
required by accrediting agencies, such as CAP,
TJC, and state Boards of Health. Assessors look
at whether the refrigerator or freezer can maintain
the temperature range listed on the product’s
package insert. In addition, the units must be
monitored, and there must be a plan to address
any excursions outside of the acceptable range.

Configurable storage supports better
inventory control

14400 Bergen Boulevard
Noblesville, IN 46060 USA
(800 )743-5637
www.helmerinc.com/cold-storage

Inventory control is important to operational
efficiency. Utilizing refrigerators with glass doors
provides better product visibility, which in turn
supports effective inventory management. MMH
has also found value in the configurable storage
options offered by Helmer Scientific. All refrigerators and freezers are now ordered with roll-out
baskets (rather than stationary shelves). Because
the baskets can be pulled out, they offer better
ergonomics for laboratory staff, better visibility to
the stored products, and improved organization.
This enables efficient stock rotation and better
inventory management.
In addition to the use of refrigerators with glass
doors and implementation of roll-out baskets, for
each unit MMH labels the baskets and creates
inventory diagrams that are placed on the door.
This helps quickly direct users to the products they
need and minimizes door-open time.
Because of the strict temperature ranges
required for their stored products, accreditation requirements, and the benefits of effective
inventory control, MMH has realized value from
implementing medical-grade cold storage. It has
far exceeded any savings that would have been
realized from purchasing lower cost household or
commercial grade units.

Provide
the
highest
standard
of patient
care...

with temperature controlled
storage you can trust

We are devoted to helping clinical laboratories
and blood banks deliver the highest standard
of patient care by providing reliable, welldesigned cold storage products.
Have confidence that reagents, samples,
and controls are properly stored to support
accurate test results.
Store blood and precious biological samples
in a temperature controlled environment you
can trust.

For more information on
refrigerators, freezers, and ultra-low freezers

www.helmerinc.com/cold-storage

TrueBlue™
Find us on

Cold storage for clinical laboratories, blood banks, and biorepositories

Alere i Strep A
™

Molecular results in 8 minutes or less.
Call 1.877.441.7440 or visit alere-i.com/us today | alere-i@alere.com

© 2015 Alere. All rights reserved. The Alere Logo, Alere and Knowing now matters are trademarks of the Alere group of companies. 120001741-01 08/15



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