[Histonet] Fw: Validation- Keeping track of everything

[Jeffrey Silverman]

--- On Fri, 4/2/10, Jeffrey Silverman <pathmaster <@t> yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Jeffrey Silverman <pathmaster <@t> yahoo.com>
Subject: Validation- Keeping track of everything
To: laurie.colbert <@t> huntingtonhospital.com
Date: Friday, April 2, 2010, 5:34 PM

Better stick em in a box labelled with stain date and lot number being validated. Someone's going to want to see them. 

Here in New York, they are going nuts with new regs. We now have to assign lot numbers to control blocks after we validate them. It doesn't matter that we stick the control on each and every slide we stain and one can plainly determine if the control is adequate or not. If it's not, it has no business being part of the patient record. Now we have to give it a number and track it. Dumb ass stuff if you ask me. In the old days, we'd cut a control slide and if it worked it worked you kept using it and you used it up. If it didn't work, the pathologist would have rejected it and ordered a repeat with a good control. The proof was on each and every slide that it worked. 

Antibodies and detection chemistries are perishable and can be
 capricious so validation and inventory tracking are worthwhile IMHO. But fer goodness sake, now we must record the lot numbers of every batch of xylene, alcohol, eosin, etc and track service dates etc. When was the last time anyone had problems with bulk xylene, alcohol, etc. We already do a meticulous daily QC check on the slides, if there's a problem, one can go and check the lot number in use currently, record it and take appropriate action. But, noooooooo, the bureaucrats need more to do, so now we must record the lot number of everything that comes in and track the dates that we use it. 

And they wonder why healthcare is a financial leech bleeding the nation and it's people. I reiterate, sheesh. 

Happy Springtime  everyone. Enjoy the holiday.  

Jeff Silverman