Serving Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, our April meeting will provide an excellent educational opportunity for all who attend. Core Members include:

  • Wendy Denk MT(ASCP)
    Ingalls Memorial Hospital

  • Gil Salas MT(ASCP)
    University of Iilinois Medical Center

  • Joanne McEldowney, RN
    University of Illinois Medical Center

Quality in the Lab;
Inpatient Hyperglycemia; Connectivity
and More Discussed at the April 5, 2006 Meeting of the Tri-State POC Network!

  • The spring meeting for 2006 was held at the Doubletree Hotel in Alsip, Illinois on Wednesday, April 5 from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM.  The meeting was attended by 40 registered healthcare professionals and representatives from: Bayer, Hemocue, Instrumentation Laboratory, Lifescan, MAS, and Roche.

  • The meeting commenced with opening remarks by Joanne McEldowney, RN.  Members of the core group include:  Wendy Denk, Ingalls Hospital, Harvey, IL; Joanne McEldowney, RN, Univ of Illinois – Chicago, Chicago, IL; Gil Salas, Univ of Illinois – Chicago, Chicago, IL.

  • The session started with a presentation by Nikola Bauman, PhD from the University of Illinois, Chicago.  Her topic, Quality in the Clinical Laboratory: Points for Quality in POCT, covered the areas of Laboratory errors from Pre-analytical to Post-analytical.  She said it is hard to determine the error rate for lab errors but the greatest percentage of errors (60%) occurs in the pre-analytical step, followed by 25% post-analytical and 15% analytic.  Examples for pre-analytic: sample integrity, incorrect order, identification; analytic include equipment, sample mix-up, interfering substances; post-analytic include reporting and clerical errors.  POCT has more control over the pre-analytic step, as one person is responsible from start to finish.  However, although the sample transport issue is eliminated, there are multiple users and instruments and the quality of the sample is hard to identify, as the volumes are so small. In the analytic step, recognizing out of range, QC and knowing what type of QC material to use can also lead to errors.  Post-analytical errors include improper data entry and the reporting or analysis of the test result.  Sources of POCT errors include operator incompetence, no adherence to procedure and uncontrolled reagents and equipment.  And how can we make things better? – continual competence assessment of all operators, proficiency testing and appropriate quality control.

  • Our second speaker, David Baldwin, MD, was sponsored by Roche and presented: Management of Inpatient Hyperglycemia: How are we transforming our Academic Medical Center?  Dr. Baldwin presented research data from Rush University Medical Center and explained the potential benefits of improving glucose control in the hospital: reduce mortality, reduce morbidity and reduce costs of care.  Based on their research, they developed insulin protocols for both pre and post CABG and Inpatient Diabetes Management Guidelines.  The HBA1C is generally used as a monitoring tool but its use is moving towards being a diagnostic tool and has been found to be about 80% effective.

  • The two afternoon sessions focused on connectivity and the use of middleware and POC.  In the first session, Jose Castanon, Informatics Product Manager with Lifescan, presented Improving POCT with End-to-End Connectivity.  The steps for Integrated Intelligence include: capture data, data delivery, transform data, and distribute data.  To capture data, you want to ensure the correct patient so he recommends implementing the use of barcodes.  Data delivery may be either through a network/modem or wireless network. To transform the data, you should have a rules based system with extensive reporting capabilities and integration/interface.  And finally, to distribute data, you want to provide faster access to information.  IT considerations include: the obsolescence of downtime, standards and policies, security, and infrastructure.

  • Our final speaker, Becky Clarke from Telcor, discussed Middleware and Point of Care.  What is middleware? It is software that serves as an intermediary between system software and application, such as, interface engines, data links, BB systems, billing outreach systems and POC systems.  The value of Middleware Solutions include quick deployment, doesn’t have to change when the LIS changes, freedom to select “best of breed”.  The perfect Middleware POC Solution is truly open for all testing outside the laboratory, is hardware independent, is scalable, provides a commitment for continued product enhancements, is LIS independent, and offers functionality.

  • Prior to the conclusion of the day, there was a mini raffle in which three lucky attendees walked away with a gift.  Congratulations to Linda Voss, Meryl Short and S. Patel!

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