Page 2 of 3: Changes in the Biochemistry lab

Message from Catherine Streutker

A memo will be going around shortly but I wanted to highlight the changes in the Biochemistry lab to the Medical Leaders group as I know people don't always read memos. We have been bringing in and validating the new biochemistry line at St Mike's and will be going live this week if all goes well. At that time, the machines will be up and running, but the automated line that runs between the machines will not be built for 3 months. This means that all specimens have to be centrifuged manually and moved from machine to machine by hand. This will cause increased TAT for tests for that 3 month period. Particularly for the ER, ICUs, trauma and oncology, if there are urgent cases we ask that you call the lab to get the case prioritized. Because of storage issues, we can not allow add-on tests except in the most extreme situations, as the previous vials will be very difficult to find.  Please refrain from labelling everything as STAT. We are already having problems with STAT tests being ordered on patients where there is no evidence of urgency and it appears that the test is being done to speed up patient discharge. STAT should be used only for cases with imminent risk of loss of life, limb or organ. Our phlebotomy team is limited and are struggling to keep up with the demand for these cases on certain floors.

If you label many of your cases as STAT cases, then none of them will be done quickly as it will swamp the system.

Can you please let your nursing teams know about this as well.

Thank You