Phlebotomy Essays - Blood Tests, Blood, Hematology, Venipuncture

Phlebotomy Learning the Art of Bloodletting If one needs to determine if they are going to be eating for two or needing to rule out a diagnosis of diabetes, the most accurate and efficient procedure is having your blood tested and analyzed by a Lab tech in a medical laboratory. Before the tech can run a test there must be a properly educated and trained health care worker to perform the bloodletting procedure, in modern day terms this person is a phlebotomist. In this paper I will take you through the training and experiences I have encountered at DMC Huron Valley Hospital, in the laboratory, while being a phlebotomy student. The DMC facility in Commerce Michigan, better known as DMC Huron Valley is a fairly new facility. Built in 1986 the facility had one lab that performed phlebotomy procedures, it wasn?t until 1999 when a second outpatient lab was open on the second level to accommodate the needs of several specialized physician offices opening. The specialist consist in one of the wings have practices contained in Time Share Offices, which is where several physicians will use the facility and its equipment on a certain day of the week, month and even sometimes during a particular season. (Hunter, 2009) The hospital itself offers several different medical services, such as radiology, labor and delivery, perinatology, pathology, dermatology, inpatient care and many more. The hospital however does not offer an internal medicine department or pediatrics. (DMC, 2009) Within the lab collection of specimens for blood, urine, stool, and sputum are offered. Ninety five percent of the blood collecting specimens are performed on outpatients. Occasionally one of the doctors will request for the patient to have their blood drawn while they are still in the examination room. Collection of blood specimens, such as Homocysteine Levels, Complete Blood Counts, Lipid Profile, Chemistry Screening, Electrolytes, and Glucose Levels are a few of the multitudes of test the lab draws blood for. The laboratory technician, which performs the test on the specimens, performs the testing on the inpatient specimens. The majority of the outpatient specimens are sent the main Detroit Medical Center laboratory in downtown Detroit. If the patients requisition or prescription is marked STAT, which is defined as ?with no delay; at once? (unknown, 2009), the test are performed at DMC Huron Valley Sinai. The lab here at DMC/HVS has different testing stations, such as Hematology w ere CBC and SED Rate testing is done, Chemistry does drug screening and electrolyte testing, Coagulation takes care of the PT,PTT and Fibrogen. There is a Microbiology department that performs only STAT test for conditions like influenza and strep. There are other testing stations, Urinalysis, Blood Banking, Pathology, and Virology. (Hunter, 2009) The morning shift, 7:30am-3:30pm, which I am presently doing my externship, sets the precedence for the rest of the shifts. Upon arrival we obtain the keys for the second floor lab from the main lab on the first floor. After unlocking the lab and turning on the lights, heat/ac, we check the stock of supplies so that we can service our patients in a proper and timely manner. Then we check for any notes left from the previous day. Sometimes there are glucose tolerance test scheduled for the morning, we check the desk calendar for appointments, if a glucose test is scheduled we pull the patients chart from the computer and get the necessary items for the patient. The sign in clip board and ink pen are now set out for the patients to sign in. During the night test results for the doctor?s offices on our floor is sent to a printer in our lab. The results are printed on a DOX matrix type of printer that we rip off separate by patient and then by doctor, we then deliver it to the doctor?s r eceptionist. If it is Monday ? Friday, in the upstairs lab we primarily only draw blood and collect urine specimens, we will spin off serum separator tubes in the centrifuge, we also spin off Ethylenediamine tetra-acetic acid tubes (EDTA) for Brain Nauturetic Peptide (BNP) test, then draw the serum off and put the serum in another container and store the container in a frozen bag containing a liquid