[Histonet] Organizing of cassettes for processing

[Va Paula Sicurello]

When I batted clean up and loaded the processors, the residents grossed in the specimens and placed them in a basket in a container of formalin with a lid.  The grossing was done and the containers were kept on the downdraft table.

When it came time to load the processors I put the cassettes in numerical order and in separate baskets (smalls like GI biopsies and needle biopsies went together in one basket, fatty samples like breast tissue in another basket, etc).  I did this on the downdraft table and placed the cassettes in numerical order.

This helped us to find out if samples were mislabelled (2 cassettes with the same number) or missing (samples labelled A-F and D was missing).  This saved our bacon many times since I would make notes or ask the resident where the sample was or which was which.

It also made it easier for the embedders since I placed the notes regarding the missing cassettes by the embedding stations.  Plus they could embed the block in numeric order so the slides that needed to get out first were cut and stained first.

Paula Sicurello
VA Medical Center San Diego
Veterans Medical Research Foundation (VMRF) 
Core for Micro Imaging(C-MI)
3350 La Jolla Village Dr., MC151
San Diego, CA 92161
858-552-8585 x2397

C-MI for your imaging needs.


--- On Wed, 8/26/09, bamoe <@t> gundluth.org <bamoe <@t> gundluth.org> wrote:

> From: bamoe <@t> gundluth.org <bamoe <@t> gundluth.org>
> Subject: [Histonet] Organizing of cassettes for processing
> To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> Date: Wednesday, August 26, 2009, 8:38 PM
> 
> Hi all -
> 
> For those that do batch overnight processing, how do you
> organize the
> cassettes?
> 
> Currently we have 2 path assistants that gross throughout
> the day, and each
> puts their cassettes as they are grossed into a bucket of
> formalin.  At the
> end of the day a histotech drains the formalin off, rinses
> the cassettes in
> water, then manually puts the cassettes into order
> according to our
> worklist, with rush cases being put up front.  The
> baskets are then loaded
> onto the tissue processor (Sakura VIP5 and VIP6).
> 
> We are wondering if there are some other ideas of how to
> streamline this
> process.  One thought was to have the cassettes
> loaded/organized into the
> tissue processing basket as they are grossed, but have a
> concern about
> formalin exposure while doing this.
> 
>  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Barb Moe
> Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center
> La Crosse WI
> 
> 
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