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Stepwise Success

Rules and Algorithms
November 6, 2009 6:26 AM by Scott Warner
Just the other day a question of how to alert physicians of laboratory reflex rules came up. After all, everyone's rules are slightly different. Examples: if the dipstick is positive for blood or leukocyte esterase, perform a microscopic examination of Read More...
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Weasel Words
November 2, 2009 6:26 AM by Scott Warner
Don Watson says in his introduction to Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words, Contemporary Cliches, Cant, & Management Jargon that weasel words are bringing about the death of language. "The real disease," he writes, "is in the system: in the new models Read More...
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Plan, Don't Panic
October 28, 2009 6:27 AM by Scott Warner
The other week I watched a show on the Discovery channel in disbelief. Called Pig Bomb , it described hoards of feral pigs roaming the Southeast. Locals may have cross-bred the American boar with its ill-tempered cousin, the Eurasian wild boar, for hunting Read More...
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Abort Retry Ignore
October 23, 2009 6:07 AM by Scott Warner
MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) debuted 28 years ago, quickly finding its way into labs on PCs in offices or attached to instruments. Programs such as BASIC promised much. We just knew , deep down, that computers meant less paper, effortless Read More...
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Back to BASIC
October 19, 2009 6:17 AM by Scott Warner
I once read an article about a BASIC program used to temperature-correct arterial blood gas results. This was in the day when a program could be "keyed in" from a magazine. BASIC, which stands for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, was Read More...
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Valuable Work
October 5, 2009 7:16 AM by Scott Warner
When a round robin of "What's New" got to me at a recent department head meeting I said, "We're working on a new C. diff algorithm that screens for toxin-producing antigen and not just the toxin." Amid blank stares one manager laughed, " English please!" Read More...
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Competency
September 30, 2009 7:04 AM by Scott Warner
According to CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) Sec. 493.1413(b)(8) , the technical consultant is responsible for "evaluating the competency of testing personnel." There are a number of ways to do this: direct observation, review of records, Read More...
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More Bullies
September 25, 2009 6:54 AM by Scott Warner
I've written about bullies in contexts of relational aggression and most recently in terms of what it means to you. Let's consider several examples. The Coworker Bully – this individual goes to breaks and lunches before you, volunteers early for the sweet Read More...
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Bullies
September 21, 2009 7:30 AM by Scott Warner
When I was a kid, every grade seemed to have a bully, often a large boy with thick fists who didn't do well in school. Small for my age, I saw many of them up close. I was told to stand up to bullies -- essentially cowards -- or suck it up. (I got larger Read More...
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Take Home the Aha!
September 11, 2009 6:21 AM by Scott Warner
One of the catch-phrases at seminars is The take home message is… Giving your audience a pithy "take home" message is good public speaking. It can be a memorable way to summarize an idea, merge ideas with action, or put a complex idea in terms everyone Read More...
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Calculations
September 8, 2009 6:17 AM by Scott Warner
Most of us aren't mathematicians. Well, I'm not. I've known people who are just better at "seeing" math than myself. I've always struggled to add a column of figures in my head, forget solving Fermat's Last Theorem . Which has been solved already. Just Read More...
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Misfiling
August 28, 2009 6:06 AM by Scott Warner
If your lab uses a card file to track patient blood bank history, some cards are misfiled. Depending on where in the file they are placed, they may be good as gone. A blood banker won't be able to compare blood types or know that the patient has a positive Read More...
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Survey This, Survey That
August 24, 2009 6:16 AM by Scott Warner
Suddenly, they are everywhere: in letters, emails, on little cards handed out by servers, and on cash register receipts. Major retailers and restaurant chains want my opinion of their service. We want to hear what you think! In return, I get a freebie, Read More...
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Don't Hate Your Job
August 19, 2009 6:00 AM by Scott Warner
Some of you hate your job. Maybe not all of it or all the time, but some of you would quit if you could. You hate the pay, the hours, the weekends, working Christmas, being on call, having your opinions dismissed, and (most importantly) your boss. But Read More...
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Error is Just a Word
August 14, 2009 7:20 AM by Scott Warner
Error means to deviate, blunder, or make a mistake. Merriam Webster's Dictionary of Law has this marvelous definition: "an act that through ignorance, deficiency, or accident departs from or fails to achieve what should be done." No matter how we strive Read More...
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