[Histonet] Research charges - long reply

[Liz Chlipala]

Mary

Mary

We are a private contract lab and do not charge for recuts or repeats
that are related to quality issues.  We run a lot of bone samples
through our lab and if there is a fold in the lesion area we recut the
block at no charge to the client.  All of our slides are QC'd and we
will repeat anything we think we need to prior to shipping the study
back to the client. 

If the client is not happy with the work, (which happens rarely) we will
repeat at no cost. We are a quality lab that stands by that so we need
to follow all of these steps.  I feel it helps us maintain our clients,
our clients know that we have their best interest in mind and that we
are honest with them. We work with them all of the time to develop
grossing, processing, sectioning and staining protocols that are
specific to their tissues.  Some of our basic charges to process and
stain one block with H&E we charge $16.00 to $20.00, for hand processing
we charge $25.00 per block and that includes an H&E, for unstained
slides on plus slides $4.50 specials range from $16.50 to $29.50
depending upon the type of special.

A lot of the tissues we work with need to be sectioned to a specific
area, for example on mouse knees we need to section to the center of the
knee joint, or with mouse or rat eyes we need to section in the area of
the optic nerve head.  All of it is very detail orientated.  You can
sometimes tell if you are in the correct area by just looking at the
tissue in the block, then we would section, stain and review, if we were
not in the correct area we would section again, stain and review.  This
took us a lot of time and we never would charge for those additional
sections that we took.  What we do now is that we have nice student
microscopes (leica we spent around $1200.00 for each of them) next to
each microtome so as the techs cut into the block they pick up and can
review the unstained sections, this has helped us out a lot. We have
less recuts now.  The samples that we need to fiddle with a bit on
trimming are the ones that we charge $20.00 per block, like bone and
eyes.

For those individuals who want to stand by you while you section through
their block and only collect the lesions I would either charge them an
hourly rate or state that they have to pay for each unstained slide and
stained slide - you should be doing this already.

Researchers sometimes have limited budgets, but they should be paying
for what you provide to them.  You have a budget that you have to work
with, and they need to be aware of that, your time and supplies cost
money too.  You can work deals out, like having them pay for supplies
for their projects. You sometimes need to get creative.

I hope this helps

Liz 

Elizabeth A. Chlipala, BS, HTL(ASCP)QIHC
Manager
Premier Laboratory, LLC
PO Box 18592
Boulder, Colorado 80308
office (303) 682-3949 
fax (303) 682-9060
www.premierlab.com
 
 
Ship to Address:
1567 Skyway Drive, Unit E
Longmont, Colorado 80504

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
[mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Mary
Lloyd
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 4:35 AM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Research charges

Would anyone like to share their charges for research.  I am interested
in these charges.  
Routine processing
Hand processing
H&E 
Unstained slides
Routine Special Stains (PAS,GMS etc.)
I would also like to know policies on charging for repeat work.  If a
researcher is interested in an area(bone) that is difficult and needs to
be recut over and over again because of lifting and folding in the area
of interest.  After using many different techniques I have resolved the
problem but some researchers demand more and more for free.
  Also I have a couple of researchers that stand with me while I am
cutting through the block to keep the lesional slides only in their
blocks.  It takes around 45 minutes per block.  Is their any
compensation for the time I spend with the researcher. 

I put through some new policies and prices but my pathologist says I
need documentation of those charges.
 Thanks Mary

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