Here is our policy. The form that is signed for the release has a formalin and biohazard warning. No wet tissue is returned to a patient, but only released to a funeral home. Hope it helps PURPOSE: To define the types of specimens that may be returned to the patient upon request of the patient and/or physician, and to provide appropriate warnings via a signed form (AP-39 attached), to the patient and/or physician of possible biohazard and hazardous chemical exposure. POLICY: Specimens that may be released to patients are limited to: A. Gallstones B. Urinary or salivary calculi C. Foreign bodies D. Teeth E. Surgical Orthopedic Hardware Specimens that may be released for purposes of burial are as follows: A. Products of Conception (POC) to funeral director only B. Any other human tissue to funeral director only PROCEDURE: A. A request is received by lab for the return of a specimen to the patient. The request is either written on the histopathology form received with the specimen or by phone from the OR unit, Floor, patient or physician. B. The histology technician assigned to gross room is notified as well as the grossing pathologist. C. Obtain a Request for Return of Specimen to Patient form (AP-39) and complete required information. D. Prepare specimen as follows and attach form to bag to be read, signed by patient and/or physician and filed with surgical pathology report. E. The pathologist or designee retrieves the specimen and places it into a clean plastic container which is labeled with the patient's name and specimen accession number. F. Pour a sufficient amount of 100% alcohol over the specimen and agitate container to rinse off excess formalin. Pour off all 100% (discard alcohol in waste container). Attach lid and place container in paper bag. Label bag with patient and physician name. WARNING: All specimens must be formalin fixed prior to return to patient. (Hardware must be placed in formalin over night). Only those specimens listed above may be returned. No soft tissue will be returned.
Terri L. Braud, HT(ASCP) HNL Laboratories for Holy Redeemer Hospital 1648 Huntingdon Pike Meadowbrook, PA 19046 Ph: 215-938-3689 Fax: 215-938-2021 Honesty AccouNtability AgiLity CoLlaboration CoMpassion -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2025 1:00 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [EXTERNAL] Histonet Digest, Vol 259, Issue 9 CAUTION: This is an external email. Stop and think before clicking links or opening attachments. If you have questions or suspicions, call IT Support Center 215-938-3900 or ext. 4HELP. Send Histonet mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Histonet digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Formic Acid treatment for b-Amyloid staining (Cathy M. Mathis/Comparative Medicine) 2. Release of Tissue Policy/ form (Hannen, Valerie) 3. Re: Release of Tissue Policy/ form (richard cartun) 4. Re: Formic Acid treatment for b-Amyloid staining (Whitaker, Bonnie) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2025 18:30:45 +0000 From: "Cathy M. Mathis/Comparative Medicine" <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Subject: [Histonet] Formic Acid treatment for b-Amyloid staining Message-ID: <sj2pr04mb8985396bfb2359e9430c4bd3a0...@sj2pr04mb8985.namprd04.prod.outlook.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Is there a reason to using formic acid treatment before beta amyloid staining in IHC?? I have only been using a high pH antigen retrieval solution and that works fine for me. Thank you for your time, Cathy Cathy M. Mathis Research Lab Technician IV Dept. of Pathology \ Comparative Pathology Lab Wake Forest University School of Medicine p 336.716.1538 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> www.wakehealth.edu<http://www.wakehealth.edu/> ________________________________ This electronic message is intended only for the use of the individual(s) and entity named as recipients in the message. If you are not an intended recipient of this message, please notify the sender immediately and delete the material from any computer. Do not deliver, distribute or copy this message, and do not disclose its contents or take any action in reliance on the information it contains. Thank you. ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2025 19:52:41 +0000 From: "Hannen, Valerie" <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Subject: [Histonet] Release of Tissue Policy/ form Message-ID: <ch3pr15mb647802ad77e41e59dde2601ff6...@ch3pr15mb6478.namprd15.prod.outlook.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Good Afternoon all!! I am hoping someone can share with me their policy and form that is used in accordance of the policy on the subject of releasing tissue per patient request to the patient? We have had a few incident recently where the patient/ family has asked for placenta and or the fetus ( less than 20 weeks gestation). My concern is that these specimens or any specimen in formalin is the formalin! We have a very old policy and I am not comfortable with it. I would like to use other's policies as a guide (not copy it verbatim). Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. TIA. v/r, Valerie Valerie A. Hannen,MLT(ASCP),HTL,SU(FL) Histology Section Chief Parrish Medical Center 951 N. Washington Avenue Titusville, Florida 32796 P: 321-268-6333 Ext. 7506 F: 321-268-6149 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> www.parrishmed.com ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2025 00:20:13 +0000 (UTC) From: richard cartun <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>, "Hannen, Valerie" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Histonet] Release of Tissue Policy/ form Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Hi, Valerie! I worked in Pathology at a hospital here in Connecticut for many years and handled all these requests, sometimes in conjunction with our Legal Department.? The State of Connecticut has a statute that states human tissue can only be handled by medical personnel in hospitals, surgery centers, labs, or funeral homes.? Therefore, we would only release patient specimens that were in formalin (mostly fetuses for burial) to a representative from a funeral home.? The patient or family member would have to contact the funeral home for pickup and pay for all associated charges.? We also had a release form that the requestor and the funeral home would have to complete and sign off on.? ? With the exception of a fetus for burial, these requirements almost always resulted in patients canceling their initial request.? I also found that speaking with the requester and educating them on this issue helped, too.? For example, many towns have ordinances that prohibit burying human tissue on the homeowner's property.?? For patients who wanted their "fresh" placenta after giving birth, our hospital policy was for the OB Department to handle it; Pathology did not get involved! I hope this information helps. Richard W. Cartun, MS, PhDMorphologic Proteomics, LLC On Monday, June 16, 2025 at 03:53:06 PM EDT, Hannen, Valerie via Histonet <[email protected]> wrote: Good Afternoon all!! I am hoping someone can share with me their policy and form that is used in accordance of the policy on the subject of releasing tissue per patient request to the patient?? We have had a few incident recently where the patient/ family has asked for placenta and or the fetus ( less than 20 weeks gestation). My concern is that these specimens or any specimen in formalin is the formalin! We have a very old policy and I am not comfortable with it. I would like to use other's policies as a guide (not copy it verbatim).? Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. TIA. v/r, Valerie Valerie A. Hannen,MLT(ASCP),HTL,SU(FL) Histology Section Chief Parrish Medical Center 951 N. Washington Avenue Titusville, Florida 32796 P: 321-268-6333? Ext. 7506 F: 321-268-6149 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> www.parrishmed.com _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2025 00:22:07 +0000 From: "Whitaker, Bonnie" <[email protected]> To: "Cathy M. Mathis/Comparative Medicine" <[email protected]>, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Histonet] Formic Acid treatment for b-Amyloid staining Message-ID: <ch0pr20mb405755f34d7c1c0554936019f7...@ch0pr20mb4057.namprd20.prod.outlook.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I used this years ago, before all the different retrieval buffers were readily available. I believe it was from a NovaCastra provided protocol, but I could be mistaken about that. Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> ________________________________ From: Cathy M. Mathis/Comparative Medicine via Histonet <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, June 16, 2025 2:30:45 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [Histonet] Formic Acid treatment for b-Amyloid staining Is there a reason to using formic acid treatment before beta amyloid staining in IHC?? I have only been using a high pH antigen retrieval solution and that works fine for me. Thank you for your time, Cathy Cathy M. 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