What does STAT mean to your Lab?

[sharann]

To our lab it seems to mean anywhere from 20 mintues to 1 hour from the original call order. This is crazy. I know they can be there fast(see it for ER)but from the ICU or the floor I noticed they take longer than acceptable.Maybe they are understaffed, don;t know, but I know that when I have a stat H/H on a bleeding post-op in PACU I want it drawn within 10 minutes.

AM I being too harsh?

[Good Morning, Gil]

We draw our own labs in my unit, so I don't have to worry about that. And, if it is taking them a while, then I would probably just draw labs myself if its urgent if I were you (though I know you're busy, but if you want something done correctly, you do it yourself lol, and like you said, they only have a limited number of lab techs, and probably not enough to go around).

But, I do ensure that they're processed quickly if they're stat. It still takes a while for stat labs to be processed, so if it's very critical that it gets done quickly, I ask the doc for an LOD order, they say yes, I draw it, have someone walk it down if possible to ensure it gets done quickly, and then the lab results come up within 10 mins. Though I only ask for this if it truly is life or death as it is very costly for the patient.