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Practical challenges related to point of care testing

Point of care testing (POCT) refers to laboratory testing that occurs near to the patient, often at the patient bedside. POCT can be advantageous in situations requiring rapid turnaround time of test results for clinical decision making. There are many challenges associated with POCT, mainly related...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Shaw, Julie L.V.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5574506/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28856189
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plabm.2015.12.002
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author_facet Shaw, Julie L.V.
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description Point of care testing (POCT) refers to laboratory testing that occurs near to the patient, often at the patient bedside. POCT can be advantageous in situations requiring rapid turnaround time of test results for clinical decision making. There are many challenges associated with POCT, mainly related to quality assurance. POCT is performed by clinical staff rather than laboratory trained individuals which can lead to errors resulting from a lack of understanding of the importance of quality control and quality assurance practices. POCT is usually more expensive than testing performed in the central laboratory and requires a significant amount of support from the laboratory to ensure the quality testing and meet accreditation requirements. Here, specific challenges related to POCT compliance with accreditation standards are discussed along with strategies that can be used to overcome these challenges. These areas include: documentation of POCT orders, charting of POCT results as well as training and certification of individuals performing POCT. Factors to consider when implementing connectivity between POCT instruments and the electronic medical record are also discussed in detail and include: uni-directional versus bidirectional communication, linking patient demographic information with POCT software, the importance of positive patient identification and considering where to chart POCT results in the electronic medical record.
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spelling pubmed-55745062017-08-30 Practical challenges related to point of care testing Shaw, Julie L.V. Pract Lab Med Review Article Point of care testing (POCT) refers to laboratory testing that occurs near to the patient, often at the patient bedside. POCT can be advantageous in situations requiring rapid turnaround time of test results for clinical decision making. There are many challenges associated with POCT, mainly related to quality assurance. POCT is performed by clinical staff rather than laboratory trained individuals which can lead to errors resulting from a lack of understanding of the importance of quality control and quality assurance practices. POCT is usually more expensive than testing performed in the central laboratory and requires a significant amount of support from the laboratory to ensure the quality testing and meet accreditation requirements. Here, specific challenges related to POCT compliance with accreditation standards are discussed along with strategies that can be used to overcome these challenges. These areas include: documentation of POCT orders, charting of POCT results as well as training and certification of individuals performing POCT. Factors to consider when implementing connectivity between POCT instruments and the electronic medical record are also discussed in detail and include: uni-directional versus bidirectional communication, linking patient demographic information with POCT software, the importance of positive patient identification and considering where to chart POCT results in the electronic medical record. Elsevier 2015-12-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5574506/ /pubmed/28856189 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plabm.2015.12.002 Text en © 2015 The Author http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review Article
Shaw, Julie L.V.
Practical challenges related to point of care testing
title Practical challenges related to point of care testing
title_full Practical challenges related to point of care testing
title_fullStr Practical challenges related to point of care testing
title_full_unstemmed Practical challenges related to point of care testing
title_short Practical challenges related to point of care testing
title_sort practical challenges related to point of care testing
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5574506/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28856189
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plabm.2015.12.002
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