Laura, 1. In the past we used different colored cassettes for rush, non rush and special projects. Then we noticed that we still treated every case like it was retained/rush!! So we dropped back to one color for all our regular cases; microscreen cassettes for anything that might slip through and for our comminuted meat products.
2. Day (3 hours) run blocks are "dumped" in (i.e. not organized). We don't usually have any problems except with the tissues cut by one pathologist - who cuts too fast and sometimes too thick. But since I am here alone in the wee hours of the mornings to embed, I prefer my night (16 hrs run) blocks organized in neat 20 block rows and a lid placed on the basket. Our baskets do not have organizing spacers. We pack'em tight for long overnight runs! We have never had infiltration problems with them. We use pressure/vacuum (both VIP E300s) on all stations, all runs. 3. Our tissues are shipped overnight. So 99% of them are received nicely fixed. Exception: winter time-and tissues being shipped from the Northern states and Canada. If they are received in formalin and are under-fixed, after grossing, we transfer them to warm formalin until they go on the processor, then we give them 10 minutes on the processor with heat/vacuum/ pressure. All tissues arriving after 10 AM are held for overnight. Approximately 50% of cases are completed and diagnosis reported in 8-9 hours after arrival. The next 45% are completed in 24 hrs. The last 5% are completed within 72 hours from arrival. We started cay runs in 1978. We used an Ultra AutoTechnicon (with an agitating basket) followed several years later by the Fisher Histomatic (with an adjustable-speed stir bar in the bottom of the chamber):both processors had a direct method of stirring. We were able to process tissues in 2 hrs. When we began our search for a new processor in the 1990's, there were no processors with a stirring bar in the bottom of the processing chamber-our processing times increased to compensate for reduced agitation. Good luck in your quest to shorten processing and turn-around times. We have all struggled with the same questions. And through trial-and-error (or trial-by-fire!) ultimately found the times right for each lab's unique circumstances and problems. Histologically yours, Barbara Barbara Stancel, HTL(ASCP) Lead Technologist USDA, FSIS, EL, Pathology RRC, 950 College Station Road Athens, Georgia 30605 706-546-3698 or 706-546-3556 barbara.stan...@fsis.usda.gov No trees were hurt in the sending of this e-mail. However many electrons were severly inconvenienced! _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet