Mary Mary
We are a private contract lab and do not charge for recuts or repeats that are related to quality issues. We run a lot of bone samples through our lab and if there is a fold in the lesion area we recut the block at no charge to the client. All of our slides are QC'd and we will repeat anything we think we need to prior to shipping the study back to the client. If the client is not happy with the work, (which happens rarely) we will repeat at no cost. We are a quality lab that stands by that so we need to follow all of these steps. I feel it helps us maintain our clients, our clients know that we have their best interest in mind and that we are honest with them. We work with them all of the time to develop grossing, processing, sectioning and staining protocols that are specific to their tissues. Some of our basic charges to process and stain one block with H&E we charge $16.00 to $20.00, for hand processing we charge $25.00 per block and that includes an H&E, for unstained slides on plus slides $4.50 specials range from $16.50 to $29.50 depending upon the type of special. A lot of the tissues we work with need to be sectioned to a specific area, for example on mouse knees we need to section to the center of the knee joint, or with mouse or rat eyes we need to section in the area of the optic nerve head. All of it is very detail orientated. You can sometimes tell if you are in the correct area by just looking at the tissue in the block, then we would section, stain and review, if we were not in the correct area we would section again, stain and review. This took us a lot of time and we never would charge for those additional sections that we took. What we do now is that we have nice student microscopes (leica we spent around $1200.00 for each of them) next to each microtome so as the techs cut into the block they pick up and can review the unstained sections, this has helped us out a lot. We have less recuts now. The samples that we need to fiddle with a bit on trimming are the ones that we charge $20.00 per block, like bone and eyes. For those individuals who want to stand by you while you section through their block and only collect the lesions I would either charge them an hourly rate or state that they have to pay for each unstained slide and stained slide - you should be doing this already. Researchers sometimes have limited budgets, but they should be paying for what you provide to them. You have a budget that you have to work with, and they need to be aware of that, your time and supplies cost money too. You can work deals out, like having them pay for supplies for their projects. You sometimes need to get creative. I hope this helps Liz Elizabeth A. Chlipala, BS, HTL(ASCP)QIHC Manager Premier Laboratory, LLC PO Box 18592 Boulder, Colorado 80308 office (303) 682-3949 fax (303) 682-9060 www.premierlab.com Ship to Address: 1567 Skyway Drive, Unit E Longmont, Colorado 80504 -----Original Message----- From: histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Mary Lloyd Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 4:35 AM To: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu Subject: [Histonet] Research charges Would anyone like to share their charges for research. I am interested in these charges. Routine processing Hand processing H&E Unstained slides Routine Special Stains (PAS,GMS etc.) I would also like to know policies on charging for repeat work. If a researcher is interested in an area(bone) that is difficult and needs to be recut over and over again because of lifting and folding in the area of interest. After using many different techniques I have resolved the problem but some researchers demand more and more for free. Also I have a couple of researchers that stand with me while I am cutting through the block to keep the lesional slides only in their blocks. It takes around 45 minutes per block. Is their any compensation for the time I spend with the researcher. I put through some new policies and prices but my pathologist says I need documentation of those charges. Thanks Mary _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet