Point of Care Testing

Point of care testing can be described as analytical procedures performed for patients by healthcare professionals outside the conventional laboratory. This project involved introducing Full Blood Count (FBC) testing to the Emergency Department. The Sysmex pocH-100i was put on trial in November 2011, and it yielded accurate and reproducible results that were comparable to those obtained from the central laboratory. POC FBC is used to reduce delays experienced in obtaining diagnostic results from the central laboratory especially for patients who would benefit from having an FBC result early such as major trauma patients and patients with sepsis. The trial had shown that an accurate FBC result could be made available to the clinician for decision making with 5 minutes, compared to the 50 minutes it normally takes when central laboratory testing is involved. This video was created for the Improving Patient Safety Section of the Isle of Wight NHS Trust Awards held in November 2013 supported by JACS Medicine Management and fdb First Databank.