[Histonet] specimens recieved in formalin

[Rene J Buesa]

With "formalin being applied to specimens in places other than our lab", do you mean that vials with formalin are available in other places than your lab to place specimens into them?
   
  If that is your question, in our hospital we used to have vials with formalin available in several places through the hospital for collected specimens.
  There was not a problem with that, provided that the vials with the formalin were in just one place in those receiving areas and that they were properly labelled. The problem could be in opening the vials to place the specimens in an area with poor ventilation. That could be the source of concern.
  Hope this will help you.
  René J.

"Walker, Keith" <kwalker <@t> valleyhealthlink.com> wrote:
  We recently had our JCAHO survey done and one thing they were concerned
about was formalin being applied to specimens in places other than our
lab. I understand that proper ventilation and minimal exposure is a
concern. We operate our lab Monday thru Friday from 4 am to 6 pm and on
Saturdays from 4am to noon, so sending specimens over fresh would be a
concern. We were wondering what other facilities do with similar
situations. We are a 411 bed hospital with a large ER with level II
trauma, a 15 room OR, an outpatient surgery center, full obstetrics,
very busy endoscopy and colonoscopy business, and of course routine
specimens from the floors. We are also a reference lab. We do about
22,000 surgical cases a year. We would also like to know if anyone else
has had this issue brought up to them by inspectors before and how did
they handle it.



Thanks for your help



Keith Walker HT ascp

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