ROM+ Unknowns

We do not personally perform this test (being a pediatric hospital) but my suggestion would be to make a fake patient utilizing the controls. The operator does not need to know that it is a control. I have done this on occasion for internal surveys and blind samples. 

For our positive unknown, we had our L&D Dept collect some amniotic fluid from a patient they were inducing and had to manually break her water. We aliquoted a small amount into tubes and froze them. They have stayed stable for several years now. We use saline as a negative unknown.

Stephanie- do they have the patient give consent to give the specimen? How is that handled?

Gloria - Good question. This was done several years ago before I was the POCC. I will be needing to collect more soon, so I will definitely ask about whether a consent needs to be obtained or not. The current tubes are not labeled with any PPI. 

We use Amnisure here in the main lab but our nurses perform FERN tests in OB. So when we have a positive Amnisure specimen I have the other techs freeze it for use for FERN competencies. I use saline as a negative. The positives don't last very long (as far as FERNING goes)- roughly a couple weeks if that but we continually freeze new ones so that I have some on hand most of the time. I know this is slightly different for you but maybe you could do something along the same lines? Can you freeze your positive ROM + patients for later use?