z-logo
open-access-imgOpen Access
Assessing Performance of i-STAT at the Point of Care in the Emergency Room
Author(s) -
Chin Pin Yeo,
Adeline Ngo,
William Ng,
Swee Han Lim,
Edward Jacob
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
proceedings of singapore healthcare
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 9
eISSN - 2059-2329
pISSN - 2010-1058
DOI - 10.1177/201010581102000304
Subject(s) - point of care testing , turnaround time , medicine , creatinine , point of care , context (archaeology) , emergency department , stat , emergency medicine , laboratory test , medical laboratory , medical emergency , computer science , chemistry , pathology , engineering , operating system , nursing , biology , paleontology , biochemical engineering , apoptosis , biochemistry , stat3
Context: Point-of-care testing (POCT) for blood gas and chemistries is widely adopted in the emergency department (ED) for fast turnaround and critical medical decisions.Objective: To assess performance of ED physicians compared to laboratory technologists carrying out i-STAT analysis. Impact of user skill on POCT performance was also studied.Design: Over a 3-month period, ED physicians performed tests with their i-STAT unit with parallel blood specimens (n=60) sent to the central laboratory to be tested on another i-STAT unit and laboratory analysers (blood gas and chemistries). Comparisons to laboratory results (obtained with ABL 520 and Beckman-Coulter LX20PRO) were carried out. Two operators from ED and central laboratory performed side by side, repeated tests on the i-STAT units. Their overall within-run imprecision were compared. The analytical performance of i-STAT was further assessed by another laboratory technologist to verify its capability to deliver good results.Results: Platform comparisons showed that ED physicians performed poorer compared to laboratory technologists, particularly with chloride and pO2 (Spearman coefficient of correlation — 0.49 and 0.54 respectively indicate wide scatter). This is also mirrored in the higher overall within-run imprecision for chemistries (sodium, chloride, potassium, glucose, urea and creatinine) by an ED physician (5.4%) compared to a laboratory technologist (3.7%). Including blood gas results showed an even wider gap in their testing skills. Except at a low creatinine of 67 μmol/L, the i-STAT analyser delivered precise measurements for the chemistries and blood gas parameters.Conclusions: Performances by medical staff with the i-STAT analyser did not adequately approach the same skill level as laboratory technologists.

The content you want is available to Zendy users.

Already have an account? Click here to sign in.
Having issues? You can contact us here