Clinical laboratory science : journal of the American Society for Medical Technology
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To determine the cause of and possible solution for an excessive number of hemolyzed specimens received from the emergency department (ED) of a large medical center. ⋯ The intervention of the laboratory manager with the ED chief and nurse manager abated some of the professional arrogance between the departments. The dialogue educated the staffs about specific data that pointed to a possible origin of the problem. The ED chief placed his department on surveillance against problematic draws. Communication was improved between the two departments. However, only a moderate improvement in the number of hemolyzed specimens was noted. More training of medical center departments in phlebotomy and periodic proficiency evaluation of the all staff was indicated as a possible long-term solution.
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Congenital bleeding disorders comprise a heterogeneous group of diseases that reflect abnormalities of blood vessels, coagulation proteins, and platelets. A 14-year retrospective study (1991-2005) was conducted for patients referred to the coagulation section of the Hematology Department (King Hussein Medical Center, Amman, Jordan), who had suffered from bleeding tendencies to assess the prevalence of bleeding disorders among Jordanians and to describe their clinical manifestations. ⋯ A total of 168 patients (41.6%) were diagnosed with a bleeding disorder caused by a factor deficiency, of which 17.1% were described as hemophilia A (n=69), 6.2% were described as vWD (n=25), and 4.2% were described as hemophilia B (n=17). A subset of the total patient population comprising 14.1% of the patients were diagnosed with a Rare Inherited Coagulation Deficiency (RICD), where 4.0% were FX deficient (n=16), 3.7% were FVII deficient (n=15), 3.7% were FV deficient (n=15), 2.5% were FXI deficient (n=10), and 0.2% were diagnosed with afibrinogenemia (n=1).
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To assess the predictive ability of various aspects of the work environment for organizational commitment. ⋯ The results indicate a less than optimal level of organizational commitment to employers, which were predominantly hospitals, by CLS practitioners. This may result in continuing retention problems for hospital laboratories. The results offer strategies for improving organizational commitment via the significant predictors.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of two platelet count estimation methodologies for peripheral blood smears.
To compare two manual methods for estimating platelet counts from Wright's stained peripheral blood smears regarding their correlation with each other and with automated platelet counts. This correlation was examined in relation to whether the platelet count was high, low, or normal and in relation to whether the hemoglobin value was low versus normal or high. ⋯ Though the alternate platelet count estimation method has been recommended for use particularly with patients with low hemoglobin values, this study found that the traditional estimation method provided more agreement with automated counts than did the alternate estimation method for all samples as well as for the subset of samples with low hemoglobin values. For the present, the traditional method of estimating platelet counts from blood smears to evaluate automated results appears to provide adequate quality assurance.