Spectrum Health Laboratory has updated its policy regarding expected date. For those providers that send an expected date of draw with your electronic order to our laboratory, there was a change on April 24, 2019 for Epic Providers and there will be a change on May 13, 2019 for EMR interface offices. From these dates forward, if you send us an expected date of draw, our phlebotomists will draw up to 14 days before your expected date and anytime thereafter until the order expires. If we do not receive an expected date of draw, we will treat the order as ready to collect from the day it arrives till one year out, when it expires. All Laboratory orders, including standing or future orders, are valid up to 400 days unless otherwise specified.
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General Information
Chemistry, Compliance & Safety, Education & Training, General Information, Referral/Sendouts
Preservative For 24 Hour Urine Collections
In both the inpatient and outpatient settings, the laboratory has supplied 24 hour urine containers with preservative such as acetic acid, sodium hydroxide, and boric acid. Upon review of specimen stability requirements, it has been determined that a preservative is not needed prior to collection of most 24 hour urine tests as long as the 24 hour container is kept refrigerated or on ice during the collection period.
Effective Monday, March 25, 2019, Syphilis Antibody Screen IgG [LAB3076] will change to Syphilis Total Antibody Screen [LAB1230501]. This test is also included in the Prenatal Screen (OB Panel) [LAB1230094].
Spectrum Health has been informed by Roche Diagnostics that the proprietary reagents used to calibrate our instruments and determine control values for ferritin blood level have been updated to reflect deviation of results leading to low result bias. This may have led to patient results being up to 20% lower than actual ferritin level.
Chemistry, Compliance & Safety, General Information
Reference Range Update – OB Magnesium, Blood Level
Effective immediately, the OB Magnesium (Mg) reference range has been updated from 1.6 to 2.5 mg/dL to 4.8 to 8.0 mg/dL, to reflect the correct therapeutic range for patients receiving magnesium sulfate therapy. The non-OB magnesium reference range is unchanged.
Please direct questions and inquiries to Dr. Jennifer Stumph via the Contact Us link above.
TEST INFORMATION
OB Magnesium, Blood Level – Epic code #LAB3400, Interface code #11703, CPT code #83735
Blood Bank, Compliance & Safety, Education & Training, Test Utilization
Reminder: Choosing Wisely Recommendations for Blood Products
As part of the Choosing Wisely campaign, the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) released five recommendations for transfusions:
NEW TESTS
- Drug Screen with Confirmation (23 Targets) [Epic: #LAB1230496; Interfaced: #1230496]
- Drug Screen with Confirmation (32 Targets) [Epic: #LAB1230497; Interfaced: #1230497]
DISCONTINUED TESTS
Effective January 19, 2019, Spectrum Health Regional Laboratory – Toxicology is proud to announce the availability of two new drug screen panels:
To maintain optimal specimen integrity, Corewell Health Laboratories West requests that you load your lockbox properly for winter weather temperatures. Please follow the diagram on the right to prevent freezing of specimens.
Frozen specimen should not be left in the lockbox for after-hours pickup. These tests may be better preserved in the office freezer until the next day’s courier pickup.
Request for specimen pickups in the West Michigan area should be made to the Laboratory Call Center at 616.774.7721.
Microbiology, Test Utilization
Helicobacter pylori Diagnosis – Serologic Testing is no Longer Recommended
Overview
Clinical guidelines no longer recommend serologic testing as a method for the diagnosis of H. pylori infection. Rather than IgG serology testing, other non-invasive testing methods such as H. pylori stool antigen and urea breath tests may be used to both diagnose and monitor response to therapy for H. pylori infection. In anticipation of an increase in stool antigen testing, currently a reference lab send-out test, Spectrum Health Regional Laboratory (SHRL) will be implementing this test as of October 29, 2018. By offering this test in-house, results will typically be available one day faster than present state.