[Histonet] Blade Rationing

["E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森"]

A stingy person is called an Iron Rooster (tie gong ji) in Chinese.

An iron rooster won't turn loose of even one feather.

The scratches that appear on slides cut with blades that should have 
been changed --we call
them iron rooster tracks.  Sort of a pun since many people think Chinese 
characters
look like chicken tracks.

We don't worry about what the blades cost.  Our clients demand
good answers, and we send pictures of the lesions with our reports,
so we need good results.

On 3:59, Rene J Buesa wrote:
> At 200 blocks/day x 5 days/week x 4 weeks/month = 4000 blocks/month which means that the 3 of you will have to use 1 blade every 80 blocks including trimming and sectioning which is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!
> The cost of blades, especially the better ones, are going up and you can save by using one blade to trim and another to make the final section, but at the rate your manager wants the quality will be compromised.
> The "norm" (if there is a norm at all) is that a histotech will probably change blades every 5 to 10 blocks if the infiltration is good and there are no decals involved in the process.
> Lets assume that you can hold to 1 blade every 10 blocks, that will mean that during 1 month you will use 400 blades = blades boxes.
> Find out how many you are actually using now and you will have an idea of your present blades usage.
> Additionally dull blades not only compromise the quality of the sections but also reduce sectioning productivity and what you may be saving in blades are going to increase in histotech time and total section production costs.
> René J.
>
> From: Teresa Moore<tmoore9k <@t> gmail.com>
> To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 5:10 PM
> Subject: [Histonet] Blade Rationing
>
>
> I work in a hospital, there are three of us on this particular shift and we
> cut approx. 200 blocks, give or take a few.  Our histo lab manager is
> telling us we should only be using one pack of blades (50 per pack) a
> month.  I'm wondering what other techs think of this especially lab
> managers and supervisors.
>
> tmoore9k <@t> gmail.com
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