We have used the older version Slidemate slide labelers from Thermofisher for
the last three years. I think putting the patient information directly on the
slide is preferred however the wear and tear on slide printers means higher
maintenance costs and more down time. Thermofisher has a
Wondered if something has changed on the question pertaining to retention. We
only do biopsies and keep the containers they come in for two days. We have
done this forever. Going through the new checklist I notice under wet tissue
it has (stock bottle). Before I interpret this
We have been told by our chemical waste company that we no longer can discard
small biopsy containers with formalin in them. In our workflow process we
gross small specimens. We generally use forceps to take the small biopsies
from the container of formalin and reseal the container with the
We use two very basic electronic balances in the histology lab at the clinic.
There is very limited use of these instruments. One is we weigh an amount of
diastase when performing a PAS stain with diastase and we weigh the bladder and
prostate TUR specimens. Is it necessary to have some
We are reviewing the requirements in a job description for Histology Manager of
a multi-specialty clinic. I am retiring next year and we are wanting to make
sure that we have a good succession plan. With the dwindling number of
certified HT's and HTL's and lack of CAP requirements to perform
I have probably asked this before but when performing the PAS stain with and
without diastase I have been told you can charge two 88313's. When performing
the colloidal iron stain the place we send it to also charges us for two
stains, one with omitting the colloidal iron solution. I
It seems to me that we are replacing filters much too often on our Grosslab
senior grossing station. I do realize that there are so many variables but
would be interested in:
By the way we only gross small biopsies, gyn, gi, derm)
a.How often others replace Grosslab filters?
b.
One of my techs has asked about a practice that we have been doing for some
time. Occasionally we find that we are doing something just because it has
been done in the past and as we all know sometimes we get bogged down with
things that are just not necessary.
When we order chemicals such as
We are starting to perform a PAS with diastase for fungus to be used by our
dermatopathologist. At first we weren't sure he was going to need a method
that used diastase but he now prefers it. Problem is our PAS counter kit did
not come with diastase. Please don't tell me to use saliva
Our organization is looking into the workflow necessary to handle breast
lumpectomies with radioactive seed localization. Right now we have more
questions than answers. I have looked at several articles and am aware of the
drastic changes that will need to be in place to handle the radioactive
We are a physician owned clinic and the number of frozen sections we do is
small. Occasionally we have a few skin biopsies that are done in the ASC
surgery department.
I got a call from them today and they have a problem that they encounter every
time they do a frozen section. When the
We have a Mohs lab that is in the process of moving and will end up with a new
CLIA number. The Mohs physician is more familiar with CLIA certification and
would like for us to choose CLIA inspections instead of CAP inspections. I am
very familiar with CAP inspections although not very
We are getting ready for our first CAP inspection in the new laboratory.I
was checking over the H controls that we do daily and made a discovery.
Several of the first slides we stained, over a year ago, are now washed out.
The eosin staining is probably worse than the hematoxylin however
This is one of the things that comes up every couple of years. Leaky
prefilled formalin containers. I know we have all dealt with nurses or
physicians that can't put the lid on correctly or put the label on the threads
of the containers. Some of the new designs have a "clicking lid" when
I just got through meeting with HR regarding a salary incentive for employees
that successfully pass their HT certification. All of us are aware that many
histology labs have employees that are not certified. We are a small clinic
lab that was set up about a year and a half ago. When we
I seem to recall that we once had to document that we went over the hazards of
formaldehyde to the staff annually. Does anyone still do this? I know the
rules on monitoring but as I was going over a past procedure I saw that we used
to reeducate the staff each year.
Jim
Jim Vickroy
Currently our non-pathologists do not gross oriented skin excisions or small
lymph nodes. I do understand that CAP requires a list of tissues that can be
handled by non-pathologists but am wondering how others are handling these
specimens.
I know there are labs, for example some large
a. We are experiencing trouble finding another tech that will meet CLIA
high complexity testing standards as well as has histotechnician training.
Also the qualifications for who can gross is a little vague so I wanted to see
if anyone has any information that would help me. A summary
Someone told me that you could not use eosin on the new Peloris II. Many of
us use eosin to color small biopsies during the process run. We have it in one
of the 95% ETOHs. Can someone explain why this can't be used in the Peoris?
Jim
Jim Vickroy
Histology Manager
Springfield Clinic, Main
We are once again reviewing the microscopic slides we use. We have found the
sldies we have used on a regular basis take too long to dry properly which
gives us some undesireable artifacts. I have longed for a "one size fits all"
microscopic slide.One of the slides I used in the past is
ia Histonet"
<histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu<mailto:histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu>>
Date: 2/16/2016 10:44 PM (GMT+03:00)
To: Rene J Buesa <rjbu...@yahoo.com<mailto:rjbu...@yahoo.com>>, "Vickroy,
James" <jvick...@springfieldclinic.com
Struggling to find an answer. We do a lot of GI biopsies in our lab.
Sometimes they look wonderful without any nuclear bubbling, other times the
bubbling is pretty intense. Since nuclear bubbling is often attributed to
incomplete fixation we of course have investigated the fixation times.
Anybody have an idea where we can get a used cassette basket that will fit in
the VIP 6? The cost of a new one is pretty high?
Jim
Jim Vickroy
Histology Manager
Springfield Clinic, Main Campus, East Building
1025 South 6th Street
Springfield, Illinois 62703
Office: 217-528-7541, Ext. 15121
Traditionally we regard nuclear bubbling as incomplete fixation however I'm not
so sure that nuclear bubbling can't be caused by additional processing
problems. This morning I have some GI biopsies that fixed for nearly 18 hrs
that have a large amount of nuclear bubbling. We run the
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
Currently we are training new staff members that each have a Bachelor of
Science in Biology. According to the ASCP they can enroll to take the HT
certification examination after a one-year period of on-the-job training. Like
in the past we have purchased Freida Carson's text, Histotechnology:
We have outgrown our two small specimen grossing stations and our looking into
finding a small system for a counter that will have a formaldehyde filter.
Trying to make sure it is safe but not wanting to spend a lot of money.
Station will be for small gi biopsies. Just need something to keep
I realize this is a question that may be impossible to answer given all of the
variables in pathology labs, specimens, physicians, etc. However here goes:
For those that work in a lab that primarily does biopsies ( mainly gi biopsies)
what is the average number of slides that a pathologist
Currently our dermatologists send their skin biopsies to a private lab. Since
we now have our own Histology department we are proposing to do the technical
component (grossing and preparation of slides) in house and sending the block
and HE slides to the same private company. They call
Just need a reminder:
If a pathologist orders the same several IHC stains on two blocks from the
same specimen am I correct to think that we can only charge the stains on one
of the blocks? 88342 and the remainder 88341's
Jim
Jim Vickroy
Histology Manager
Springfield Clinic, Main Campus,
We have a new histology lab and we contract a pathology group to come to our
facility and read slides. If they order a Special stain or IHC stain we send
the slides to a hospital histology department to perform the stains.
According to the new markup law we have to pass on and not markup
If I have two sections on an A specimen A1 and A2 and both had a GMS stain,
do I charge 1 - 88312 or 2 - 88312?
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:
Does anybody have an idea how to attach the combination bracket with a shelf
for the Printmate from Thermo Fisher. No instructions and trying to
conceptualize how this thing goes together. Worse than putting together a
swing set or new kid's bicycle. Diagram or picture with one attached
In the past I have plenty of years of experience recycling formalin and
clearing agents, however I don't have much experience with recycling reagent
grade alcohols. If we recycle waste alcohol that is 95% - 100 %, I am told
that our recycled product will be 99% or above. With that said how
We are a small lab processing mostly GI specimens. Currently we are sending
our H. Pylori testing to a local hospital for staining however I can predict
that this year we may have around 1000 H. Pylori stains done. I am looking for
a small platform or manual test kit to perform the H.
Let me see if I have this straight:If a pathologist orders an Hpylori stain
on 2 blocks from the same specimen C1 and C2 we can only bill one 88342.
If this correct.Obviously if he ordered addition different IHC stains we
could change additional 88341's.
Jim Vickroy
Histology Manager
Does anybody remember how to test whether a formaldehyde filter for a grossing
station is exhausted? If I remember right there is some sort of test where you
remove a couple of granules and cut the granules in half. The color of the cut
service is used somehow.
Also I know that changing
We are setting up a histology lab in a clinic. We use very little xylene and
only in the automated coverslipper. I am writing up a procedure to handle a
xylene spill. When I was at the hospital I segregated small and large spills
with separate procedures, both however involved the use of
I am told that in 2015 there are no longer G codes for medicare patient billing
of IHC stains. That is great. However the gentleman I talked to also said
that now for medicare patients there is only one G code for prostate biopsies.
G0461 to be used no matter how many of the biopsies
: Vickroy, James
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2015 3:14 PM
To: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: G0461 code for prostate biopsies
I am told that in 2015 there are no longer G codes for medicare patient billing
of IHC stains. That is great. However the gentleman I talked to also said
that now
I have seen somewhere a combination transport or mailer for both a paraffin
block and slides. We are going to have our special stains and IHC stains done
across town and we use a courier to take the paraffin block to the lab that
will do the procedure and then they send back the block and
I am working on setting up an adequate validation study for tissue processing
at a new lab. I want it to be adequate but also not too labor intensive or
costly. I have been in Histotechnology for over 36 years and have done this
before in the lab I can from. Unfortunately sometimes I make
We have always measured the temperature and humidity of the histology lab.
Someone today asked what the normal ranges for a histology lab were? Any
ideas?
Jim Vickroy
Histology Manager
Springfield Clinic, Main Campus, East Building
1025 South 6th Street
Springfield, Illinois 62703
Office:
Anybody using Decon HydeAway for neutralization of 10% NBF. If so what are
your experiences and do you dispose of the product (gel) into your solid
biological waste for disposal?
In the past I have used Formalex or Formalex Green. This material looks
cheaper but cheaper is not always better
We are planning to recycle alcohol in the new lab I am working with.
Previously I always used an alcohol blend such as the Flex products. However
at this new lab we are going to only process biopsies so I believe I can get by
using ethanol and not a blend. We will be getting our alcohol
I didn't plan on this however wondered if anyone had a General Data system for
making cassettes but a different setup for making slides, such as a Thermo
Slidemate.
I suspect there are issues with the LIS system, barcoding, etc.Am I wrong?
Jim
Jim Vickroy
Histology Manager
Springfield
Comparing different products. Currently we have Cyberpath as our anatomic
pathology system. I am trying to purchase a cassette printer and slide
printers and am trying to figure out the added expenses for connecting these
instruments to the CyberPath system. I have an email out to CyperPath
Sakura now carries the Primera made cassette and slide labelers. (Tissue Tek).
Does anybody have any experience with these instruments?
Jim
Jim Vickroy
Histology Manager
Springfield Clinic, Main Campus, East Building
1025 South 6th Street
Springfield, Illinois 62703
Office: 217-528-7541,
Has anyone used the Tissue Tex SmartWrite Slide Printer and Cassette Printer?
These both use Thermal transfer.
I am also considering ThermoScientific, Leica, and General Data.
Any advice would be welcome.
Thanks
Jim
Jim Vickroy
Histology Manager
Springfield Clinic, Main Campus, East
Could anyone comment on the Thermo Printmate and Slide Mate? I am considering
going to it for labeling of cassettes and slides.
Thanks
Jim Vickroy
Histology Manager
Springfield Clinic, Main Campus, East Building
1025 South 6th Street
Springfield, Illinois 62703
Office: 217-528-7541, Ext.
Buying two automated tissue processors for new lab. I have always used the
VIP tissue processors, can anyone comment on a side by side comparison between
the Leica and the VIP 6?
thanks
Jim Vickroy
Histology Manager
Springfield Clinic, Main Campus, East Building
1025 South 6th Street
I have recently moved to a new organization and am setting up a new surgical
pathology lab. The lab LIS system is Cyberlab and I am told that they have a AP
module. In the past I have worked with Cerner Classic and CoPath Plus at a
hospital but this lab will be a much smaller set-up.
Does anyone know if the VIP 6 cassette baskets fit other vendor embedding
centers? Spec sheets have a lot of measurements but practical experience is
the best guide.
We are considering a Thermofisher embedding center or a Leica Embedding Center
but most likely we will process with a VIP 6 so
53 matches
Mail list logo
