Our latest CAP survey was returned today and although there are no major issues one possible improvement area is evident. On all of the biopsies the area of "fixation/processing" was not rated as excellent. The suggested possible reasons were: fixation incomplete, nuclear bubbling artifact, tissue poorly processed. The survey also said that many of the samples sent in throughout the country had similar issues in the fixation/processing area most likely because of the rapid turnaround times and shortened processing times. I am trying to be proactive here and see if we can adjust some times to improve the processing quality even though we have not had any complaints from the pathologists. Of course we all know that other artifacts caused prior to the specimen arriving in the lab can also have an effect on the quality of the H&E slides. Our fixation times should not be a factor so I have to conclude that maybe the rest of our processing times need to be adjusted. Another factor that we have is that we use blue sponges for almost all of our tissues. Our largest number of specimens are GI biopsies. If possible can anyone share with me their rapid processing schedules or simply the approximate times they have for each dehydration or clearing step. We do run a larger overnight tissue run on any biopsy or tissue that we feel is too large for the "rapid run". I am hesitant to run the biopsies routinely on the longer programs becase of over dehydration, etc. even though we do use an alcohol blend.
Any suggestions or similar experiences please share. Again our pathologists say everything looks great so I don't want to change much. Jim Jim Vickroy Histology Manager Springfield Clinic, Main Campus, East Building 1025 South 6th Street Springfield, Illinois 62703 Office: 217-528-7541, Ext. 15121 Email: jvick...@springfieldclinic.com<mailto:jvick...@springfieldclinic.com> This electronic message contains information from Springfield Clinic, LLP that may be confidential, privileged, and/or sensitive. This information is intended for the use of the individual(s) or entity(ies) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that disclosure, copying, distribution, or action taken on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this electronic message in error, please notify the sender immediately, by electronic mail, so that arrangements may be made for the retrieval of this electronic message. Thank you. _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
