[Histonet] Ventana BenchMark Special Stainer

[P Sicurello]

Happy Christmas Eve,

I sit here reading several replies about the failure of GMS stains.  There
is one theme that pretty much everyone has mentioned, and I can say we
agree with them, Ventana/Roche blames the user and does nothing to help
correct this problem.  We have heard the same as everyone else:  User
error, blame the wash buffer - make fresh every day, etc, blame everyone
and everything except themselves.  We have 3 of the Special Stainers, one
of them we have used almost non-stop since November 2015.  It had a problem
with Trichrome stains over two years ago, which was fixed by balancing the
vortex mixers (they told us it was user error then too).  Now that the
machine has been relocated and the software has been upgraded, a machine
that rarely, if ever, had a GMS stain fail now fails with regularity.

Ventana/Roche needs to realize that they have a serious problem and not
continue to sweep it under the rug.  It's not the wash buffer, it's not the
user, it's something else and they do not want to own up to it or help come
up with a solution (no pun intended).  We have spent a lot of money on
these machines, all the kits they had us throw out because they blamed the
kit, all the wash buffer we dumped because they told us we had to make
fresh every day (we use these machines so much that the wash buffer does
not sit around and get icky), and their response is silence.

Sorry about the rant, but this is bugging me and I had to vent.

Have a safe a wonderful Holiday Season- whatever you celebrate -or don't
celebrate.

Sincerely,

Paula Sicurello, HTL (ASCP)CM

Histotechnology Specialist

UC San Diego Health

9300 Campus Point Drive

La Jolla, CA 92037
(P): 858-249-5610



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