New Process for Bedside Glucose Testing- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
New Process for Bedside Glucose Testing- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
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January 21, 2000
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In This Issue:
Leadership embraced
BWH Physicians Organization
New Process for Bedside Glucose Testing
SJPHC honors social worker Nancy MacDougall
Pike Notes
Behavioral Neurology's anchor
Obituary
The process for bedside or "point-of-care" glucose testing is changing throughout BWH. The new system is the Precision PCx by Abbott Medisense, which links the small, hand-held devices via computer docking stations to a centralized computer (QC Manager Work Station) in Laboratory Administration. The former system required users to bring individual testing units to a central location on the main campus in order to download information, while the new system downloads information directly from docking stations located throughout the hospital. The glucose testing program is managed by Lab Administration in close collaboration with Nursing. The advantages of the new system include tighter compliance with regulatory concerns and a high degree of reliability and validity of test results. More than 2000 clinicians at the main BWH campus, Brookside, Southern Jamaica Plain, and 850 Boylston Street use the devices to perform approximately 300,000 tests annually. The conversion to this new, high-tech system has also involved the extraordinary efforts of IS, Engineering, Telecommunications, and Materials Management, in addition to Lab administration and Nursing.