Fecal occult blood kits

How much do they cost?  I am really interested in purchasing these for our organization.  Currently, it is not on any of our contracts. 

I am not sure. That is my next step.

We are moving to HemaPrompt FG in our ED's - no developer to track down!

50 cards / box.  Our Cardinal $ is 36.90 / box.  The company (Aerscher Diagnostics), provided samples for the docs and for validation.

They also include training literature and procedures.

How are you having the physicans or nursers documenting and tracking lot numbers and expriation dates and recording the internal controls with the patients results.

We have used the HemaPrompt FG in our ED for several years and love it. Pros: There is no 5 min wait time (that the docs never did anyway) and the developer is contained in the card....no extra bottles. Each card has a sticker on it with the lot# and expiration date on it, space for patient ID, documentation of result and a box to check that the QC was acceptable. They are to fill out the sticker, put their initials on it and place on the face sheet for the patient.

Cons: Sometimes the docs don't fill in the sticker and toss it in the trash. I have trained nursing that these need filled out but have no way of knowing if they are enforcing it. Anyone has ideas on that...let me know. :)

For physician offices....you can't send these home with patients to return because of the developer inside. If they would want to continue that they would have to use what they have now.

Hope this helps,

Lois Snider

St. Clair Hospital

Pittsburgh, Pa

lois.snider@stclair.org

We use HemaPrompt in our ER. I can't think of any cons.  Its nice because they have the sticker with the lot number, and a place to check that QC was check, and its also great because they do not have to use developer, and can call a result that is positive right away.  Its also nice that they can do fecal and gastric on the same card.  This has helped our compliance, and even is being used now in other ERs in our health system.

We love this product, but be aware of a couple of things:

The storage temperature range is tight, 50-75 degrees F.  So we tell the clinics not to store them in exam rooms, as some of them get quite warm.  Also will need to be temperature monitored in the supply room.  (also, don't carry them around in labcoat pockets)

Also, make sure they watch the color of the QC checkmark.  Blue or Black is good, Red is BAD.  Aerscher had several bad lots a couple years ago and didn't contact us (since we purchase through Cardinal). The developer was dried out so everyone looked negative, but the checkmark was reddish.  Since we require that the lot# be entered into Epic, we were able to pull a report of all the patients that were run on the bad lot numbers and notified the providers. We could not be certain that the checkmark was blue/black (even though it was charted as acceptable).

We have been using this system in our ER for about 7 years now.  Pro:  each card has the lot number and expiration noted; no developer to manage.  None really other than we did have one system in which the QC embedded solution dry out as mentioned above it appears as a red or pink check mark.  Real obvious to catch.  We have built hard stops within our EMR system on the documentation that require entry of lot number, expiration, QC performance, result and person notified.  Because each card is provided lot number and expiration we keep slides only in our ER (our higher volume users) in the PYXIS so that we can control and track licensed users pulling the slides for use.  This also allows temp control.  Compliance of order with result documentation increased when we removed the physician group as system users.  We use HealthStream as our training/tracking system.  We built a theoretical test, Ishihara Test for color blindness and a skills checklist to include QC procedures, labeling specimen in front of patient with identifiers, acknowledgement of system limitations. . .