Pathology

[kamtadale]

The line of treatment starts with pathological reports,in almost all the diseases.The technicians take the blood samples,put them in machines,[now a days all tests are done by machines],the technicians note down the readings given by machines and the pathologist just signs,even without reading the report.Now the question is,the life and death depends on the line of treatment given by the attending physicians,based on pathological reports,prepared by technicians on a machine which may not have been calibereted/checked for accuracy,because many a times a lab handles thousands of samples and hardly any pathologist check any sample personally.I would like to know the opinions of our learned friends.

[sandybrown]

I have asked your questions many times!!

I have a question for you: A person is recovering from operation, daily blood check show increasing blood glucose, why is it necessary for the person to go on a insulin pump foe 24 hours? I have seen this with my own eyes!!?

[kamtadale]

Yes, technicians are trained to take samples and put them in machines but opinions are given by pathologist,and here is the catch......hardly any pathologist care to check the accuracy of the report.Once I went to a lab to get my fbs/ppbs done and to my surprise they gave me the report of my wife also,without taking any sample.

[yenyen]

Its not as simple as you think. The quality control system is well in place. There are high and low standards, there is a quality control specimen and there are people who keep a check on the results too. Besides, when the clinician has a doubt about the report the test gets repeated. Technicians are not their own. They work under a qualified trained person who is a medical professional who knows about interpretation of results too. The report is signed usually by the qualified person in charge and in some labs by both.

[kamtadale in reply to yenyen]

Yes,I agree but these are standard test conditions.In practice,tests are done in a sloppy way,one pathologist signs hundreds of reports,and they all have fine prints"not for medico legal purposes".Why?Because they know the quality of their works.Just get your pathology done in two three different labs same time and see the difference,Sir.

[sandybrown in reply to kamtadale]

I am sorry I do not agree with the comments. In my family there are medical people from professor, heart surgeon, liver surgeon to blood collectors!

[Manoj1K in reply to sandybrown]

I'm afraid several calibration practices defy all logic. E.g. I wanted to calibrate my home BGM machine. Asked the manufacturer. They asked me the machine serial no and sent me 2 customized test solutions. Im afraid this isn't calibration of the machine, only variance test wrt time.

Discussed with their quality control manager, he never got the idea of calibration. Finally I gave up, thanked him and left it at that.

[kamtadale in reply to sandybrown]

My brother himself is a senior asst. Surgeon in govt. Hospital and he knows all the stunts in a pathology lab, incidentally one of my doctor friend also confirmed me how a :single: pathologist signs hundreds of reports.

[rnpath]

the concerns you raised about lab results are partly addressed in a NABL accredited lab with inbuilt quality checks at every point