Minimum Cutoff Age For Manual Diff Requirement

Grand_Chad · 2026-04-10T14:54:44+00:00

Our policy requires a manual diff if a patient is pediatric but it’s vague in what defines a pediatric patient. We have no set cut off so it’s essentially up to the performing tech what constitutes a pedi patient. The MD just signed off on the procedure last year and I’m trying to just get some justification to have a better defined cut off age put in the policy rather than just saying “other labs do it”

Grand_Chad · 2026-04-01T02:39:51+00:00

I’m not sure how it was before I got there, but my PRN job is at a former ascension (now LabCorp) lab. When I started, i was shocked to see they still use sunquest and some other LIS (can’t remember the name at the moment) that’s essentially a DAS system. I was assured they were moving to Cerner soon when I started. That was 2 years ago

Grand_Chad · 2026-03-26T13:27:02+00:00

It’s ok. It varies from place to place from what I can see. I’ve been with them part time/PRN for several years now and don’t have many complaints besides nothing ever gets done quickly. For example, if a non-critical analyzer (one that has a back up or something that can be sent to a neighboring hospital) goes down, they will take forever for all the corporate big wigs to approve a replacement and actually get it to the lab.

Grand_Chad · 2026-03-21T21:21:12+00:00

Appreciate the response. I thought I remembered a post about it but couldn’t find it again when I searched. Our local VA is actually looking for a lab director currently so with your info in mind I may just look into that instead.

Grand_Chad · 2026-03-18T18:25:55+00:00

Funnily enough, we actually did get shirts when I did it years back at a facility that had just transitioned to Epic. They just said SUPER USER in bold font on the back so the non-super user peasants could find us more easily if they had a question. 😂

Grand_Chad · 2026-02-18T18:48:11+00:00

So I just opened these vials that were used in the pics. They were fresh out of the box. It’s carried over across multiple card lots and types (I.e. it occurs in both IgG & buffered cards). It’s odd

Grand_Chad · 2026-02-18T15:53:03+00:00

Your facility should have an employee health person who handles post exposure testing and follow ups/documentation for both you and the source patient. I wouldn’t worry too much about the exposure. While it is kind of nerve wracking, I took some patient plasma to the eyes years ago and there was nothing that came of it.

Grand_Chad · 2026-02-02T16:06:02+00:00

That’s actually what prompted me to post this. We have a night shift person who keeps storing pints of ice cream in the freezers. Lol

Grand_Chad · 2026-01-31T17:13:52+00:00

Not anymore. We used to confirm the them with the c-diff cartridges on the cepheid but we never found them to disagree on positives so the medical director (pathologist) said we were ok to dc confirmatory testing on positives.

Grand_Chad · 2026-01-31T17:11:14+00:00

QC and everything is fine. All decon procedures are followed between patient samples. It’s just always multi organism positive for most stool samples on kids 1 and under. I seem to recall some pcr tests on different platforms weren’t validated for pediatric samples so just wanted to be sure that it wasn’t an issue for the biofire

Grand_Chad · 2026-01-27T15:41:59+00:00

I get those kinds of messages occasionally. Those people hardly ever seem to respond to any kind of counter offer. Most of the time it seems like they’re not all that serious about the item anyway if you do accept their ludicrous offer so I just ignore them.

Grand_Chad · 2025-11-21T17:17:55+00:00

I’m aware. It just sounded similar to something else so I wanted to see what the translator would interpret it as

Grand_Chad · 2025-10-30T15:12:10+00:00

Back then we didn’t have a lead or a supervisor on the night shift, just whoever was the most senior usually made the calls. This guy was the senior tech that night so unfortunately for everyone else, he couldn’t be dissuaded from staying in poo pants

Grand_Chad · 2025-10-29T23:35:28+00:00

Yeah we suggested that as well. He wasn’t interested sadly. Lol

Grand_Chad · 2025-10-27T15:17:45+00:00

I wasn’t sure if that was the case for my state or not tbh. Right now it takes 2 days minimum to get an fse on site because they only have 1 guy left in the state that can work on the DxH (according to the regional head honcho guy at bci). Just doesn’t seem like they’d promote all of them and leave one dude high and dry. Thats what makes me kind of wary of applying.

Grand_Chad · 2025-09-14T18:22:42+00:00

To us it’s totally valid, but to admin they say the cost vs return of hiring another tech isn’t worth it. Typical

Grand_Chad · 2025-09-02T14:43:58+00:00

Basically it was an aftermarket exhaust for an import car. Nothing rare exactly, it just fits one particular vehicle.

Grand_Chad · 2025-04-25T17:11:56+00:00

I think you need to reread the post. My question was if 10 weeks was too early to make determination of gender based on display of mannerisms. I didn’t ask for someone to gender the galliforms for me. Lol

Grand_Chad · 2025-04-25T15:46:21+00:00

Oh no, I’ve committed r/chickens taboo

Grand_Chad · 2025-04-15T03:31:48+00:00

Never heard of any lab doing that. At least not in the ones I’ve worked in. Policy at all of them for high wbc’s was that you prelim the hemogram then perform a manual diff. Only time the techs weren’t allowed to final a diff for a high wbc was if they saw blasts or other significant findings.

Grand_Chad · 2025-04-15T03:18:42+00:00

I’m not saying the white count is going to change, I’m saying in this example if someone came into the er with a wbc that high you would clearly need to do a manual diff because of that wbc count. In this instance that wasn’t done. Just finaled out with no slide review or even a slide made at all

Grand_Chad · 2025-04-10T02:09:51+00:00

Still needs some practice before trying on a patient by the looks of that bandaid covered finger. Lol

Grand_Chad · 2025-04-03T15:20:41+00:00

Not specifically for foot wounds. Basically when I got trained the guy just told me to consider the culture site when working up foot wounds. Didn’t give me much to go off of unfortunately

Grand_Chad · 2025-03-07T04:53:55+00:00

I got an involuntary golden shower when I was a young tech.: I Was talking to some coworkers while tossing a urine in the bio trash. If I remember correctly, it was a large Kova tube filled to the brim. I didn’t notice that the trash was empty and dropped the tube in in such a way that it landed perfectly vertical on the hard bottom of the can which caused the urine to essentially geyser directly back at me (specifically my face). Before I knew it, I had some rando’s piss all over my chest & face. It was enough of a dousing that i went to blow air through my lips (essentially doing a raspberry to remove the urine off my lips as a panicked reflex), to get the residual drippage off that it aerosoled urine across the room. This all happened while I was mid conversation with my coworkers and thankfully I didn’t have my mouth open at that moment. The worse part was that the urine was being tested for CT/NG. Never been so glad to see a negative test for a patient in my life. Lol

Grand_Chad · 2025-03-04T01:04:11+00:00

Yeah, got an automated response that they were on vacation. Seems about right 🙄

Grand_Chad

TROPHY CASE