[Histonet] CYP.07680 - cytology cross contamination

[Brandi Higgins]

Hello all,

For CAP policy CYP.07680 for "procedures to prevent cross-contamination of
specimens during processing and staining" - what are your labs doing?

 I work in a small lab so the histotechs process the cytology specimens and
the pathologists read the slides (we have no PA's or cytoprep techs or
cytotechs to screen slides).  We also process only non-GYN, so we don't have
to worry about GYN/non-GYN cross contamination.

The notes under this policy say procedures must prevent cross-contamination
between highly cellular specimens and suggest the screening method of
toluidine blue stain to determing if specimens are highly cellular.

Does anyone use the toluidine blue for this purpose?  If so could you tell
me the procedure for toluidine blue you use?  And how do you determing which
specimens you stain with toluidine blue and what qualifies as highly
cellular.  If so do you retain these toluidine blue slides for any period of
time?

CAP policy also suggests inserting a clean blank slide in each stain run and
examine for contamination.  Is anyone doing this?

We have been inspected before with no problems with this CAP question, but I
just want to make sure we are doing everything we can to prevent
cross-contamination.

Thanks in advance for your input!
Brandi Higgins, HT (ASCP)