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Laboratory Services

General Information

Winter Lockbox Tips!

march-winter-lockboxTo 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.

November 7, 2018 by
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. Continue Reading

October 23, 2018 by
Compliance & Safety, Education & Training, General Information, Referral/Sendouts

Chlamydia and Gonococcus Testing on Pediatric Patients

Spectrum Health Regional Laboratory is not validated to perform Chlamydia and Gonococcus testing on pediatric patients under the age of 14 years old. Testing for these patients must be sent to a reference laboratory. Please order a Reference Miscellaneous Test (#LAB848) and indicate complete test name when ordering. Continue Reading

August 17, 2018 by
Chemistry, General Information

Fasting Lipid Test Update

Effective August 8th, Spectrum Health Laboratory will ask all patients to indicate how long they have been fasting (regardless of whether they were fasting or not) when they present for Lipid testing. In light of recent discussions in the literature that debate the utility of fasting prior to lipid testing; we recognize that some clinicians may now not require their patients to be fasting and hope that reporting out length of fasting (hours) with each lipid result will allow all clinicians to better interpret their patient’s lipid results. If fasting is desired; Spectrum Health Laboratory recommends no caloric or caffeine intake for at least 8 hours. The patient is not to drink (other than water), eat, smoke, chew gum, candy, cough drops, etc. for at least 8 hours prior to their blood tests. Prescribed medications are allowed. Continue Reading

July 18, 2018 by
Compliance & Safety

Biotin Alert

Biotin is widely used in immunoassay type laboratory methods over a wide range of instruments at numerous clinical laboratories throughout the world (including Spectrum Health).

With the expansion of biotin – also known as vitamin B7 – supplementation and treatments (“over the counter” and prescription, respectively); an associated interference with many clinical laboratory tests has been identified, confirmed and documented. Unfortunately, magnitude and type (falsely increased/decreased) of interference varies with dose and assay; however, it has been confirmed that as dose increases so does the magnitude of the response. In late November 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a safety alert warning that biotin can interfere with certain lab tests and cause incorrect test results. Continue Reading

June 28, 2018 by
General Information

Faxing Orders to Outpatient Laboratories

Spectrum Health Regional Laboratory now has ONE centralized fax number to which you can send your lab orders! This means no more searching for the fax number for a particular draw site for your patient. We will enter the faxed orders into our system, making them available to ALL of our draw sites; so your patient will have access to their order at their favorite draw site and the added convenience of going to any draw site that they choose!

*The new fax line number is: 616-774-7696

 *If you are faxing an order for a patient that plans to go to a draw site immediately, please write “Patient En Route” on the order, so that it may be prioritized.

 * Please note: Specimen add-on orders (additional tests for specimens in-lab) are still faxed to 616-267-2751, as stated on the add-on form.

February 9, 2018 by
General Information

After Hours Blood Collection for Grand Rapids Critical Needs Patients

Per the memo sent out July 2012, the Grand Rapids area laboratories will draw patients after hours on a limited basis at the Butterworth Hospital Laboratory location ONLY. We will serve patients with emergent laboratory needs with a direct physician request. The laboratory will be unable to accommodate routine walk-in patients outside of normal business hours.

The physician will need to call the Laboratory Call Center at 616-774-7721 to initiate the blood draw for their critical needs patient. Please be prepared to provide our Call Center with relevant information regarding the patient’s situation. You will also be asked to fax a written order to 616-391-3129, and should direct your patient to the Butterworth Admitting for the blood draw. Be advised that this process may take up to 30 minutes to complete the draw using our inpatient phlebotomy staff.

We request that all routine blood draws return to one of our convenient Outpatient laboratory locations during normal business hours. Most laboratory locations are open Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. with some sites open on Saturday mornings. We recommend that if there is a question regarding hours of operation to contact the draw site or visit findadoctor.spectrumhealth.org.

January 6, 2018 by
Blood Bank, Compliance & Safety

Blood Bank Specimens Require Two Signatures

Effective October 15th, 2017, all specimens collected for Blood Bank must have two signatures on the specimen written in ink that is resistant to smearing after a patient has been identified according to the Patient Identification Policy.

One of the two collectors/witnesses must be a lab staff member, unless specimen is collected in Spectrum Health Surgery, Infusion Center, Special Care Hospital, Cardiac Cath Lab Procedure Room, or a cord blood in Labor and Delivery. For Outpatients, the patient may serve as the witness and initial the tube label. Continue Reading

October 2, 2017 by
Microbiology, Test Utilization

Test Name Change: Throat Culture Comprehensive

On June 27th, the name of the current order “Respiratory (non-sputum) Culture without Gram stain” will change to “Throat Culture Comprehensive.” All other specimen collection details and culture workup will remain the same. Given the fact that there are currently several similarly named tests, this change is being made to reduce confusion regarding test selection and to clarify acceptable specimen types. Continue Reading

June 26, 2017 by