Lab Week 2009

Staff from the clinical laboratory at USAMRIID, Ft. Detrick, MD. A CAP laboratory that also runs testing in both high containment Biosafety Level 3 and Biosafety Level 4.

Lab Week at Summit Medical Group

Multitasking Med Techs at Northumberland Hills Hospital

Getting patient results at Roswell Park Cancer Institute

Resources from Central Coast Pathology

Door decorating contest

Lab Week Agenda (Word document)

Patient Quiz (Word document)

This year I organized Lab week celebrations on my own. I started early on in the year, in January by calling our suppliers to see if they could contribute towards any prizes. Only a few companies were able to contribute this year. I have been part of the lab week committee for the last 6yrs, and some companies had been more generouse in the past.

In March I mailed off for the lab week kit from CMLS, which consists of posters, pamphlets , magnets, table tents and a sample newspaper release. Early April I was able to book the display case in our hospital, we are not allowed to post posters on the walls. I decided it would be nice to have pictures of our department members in the display. So I arranged to have the group pictures to be taken. Then I took basic information from each department and presented in the display with a little explanation (as shown in picture below) With the help of some technologist specialist, we arranged for two lunch and learns, one was a presentation by our own chemist and the other was provided by a company. Both days lunch was provided.

The week before lab week I set up the display and we had table tents put out in the cafeteria.

Monday of lab week I had the pathologist and microbiologist to contribute towards a breakfast.

Tuesday was the lunch and learn on Cardiac Markers by Dr Lustig and Wednesday the presentation was on "Humate P". Thursday we had arranged for a video on spills for safety, attendance was mandatory so put a prize to it, anyone that attended was put in for the draw. Friday we closed off by cutting a cake and had coffee, along with it we drew for prizes for all the games we had throughtout the week. These games consisted of a crossword, "buffy coat guess" (which were a mixture of 5 types of candy, number of each type had to be guessed), some germ puzzles.

Throughout the week I had sent out "Did you know " hospital wide, new one every day. An example is:

"Pouring of blood from a mauve (or pink) tube to a green top tube causes erroneous laboratory results, and is a risk to patient safety. When collecting specimens for laboratory testing, you can not pour over from one tube to another. The anticoagulant in the mauve and pink top tubes is K3 EDTA which prevents clotting in these tubes by chletaing (or binding) tube to the green tube for Chemistry, Potassium (K) is being added to the green (Chemistry) tube, elevating the Potassium. In addition, the calcium in the chemistry specimen will be decreased. Also, opening the cap of a vacuum tube produes aerosols which causes an increased risk of exposure to biolobical hazards."

We also had arranged for some tours of the lab, which consisted the volunteers at the hospital, who were mostly high school students. Each department had set up some interesting presentations for the tours. Overall everybody had a great time!

Rajinder Shergill, William Osler Health Care

Sumner Regional Medical Center in Gallatin, TN

Pictures taken during the book/bake sale to benefit MEALS ON WHEELS. We had a very successful sale and alot of fun in the process of raising $1200.00!! We also have a ring toss game each year using an old glassware drying rack (remember those?) and rolls of autoclave tape. How's that for recycling? And, as you can see, we really enjoy eating all the wonderful food supplied by our vendors, our supervisors and our Pathologist, Dr. Louis Seibert.

Lab Week at Claiborne County Hospital

Lab Week Events (Word document)