Point Of Care Testing Meaning

This contrasts with the historical pattern in which testing was wholly or mostly confined to the medical laboratory which entailed sending off specimens away from the point of care and then waiting hours or days to learn the.

Point of care testing meaning. It has been defined as any laboratory test performed outside a hospital s central laboratory 1 several factors are associated with the growing interest in point of care testing 2. Centralized laboratory facilities perform a compilation of laboratory testing methods in one location that does not perform patient care. Point of care testing is becoming increasingly popular. In general the term can encompass any patient medical test that is given ad hoc and provides quick.

Point of care testing poct or bedside testing is defined as medical diagnostic testing at or near the point of care that is at the time and place of patient care. Point of care testing lab medicine the analysis of clinical specimens as close as possible to the pt including bedside ward unit or stat regional response labs that service specified areas eg the er or icu. Point of care poc testing is medical testing that is performed outside of a laboratory setting. Poc testing is also known as bedside testing near patient testing remote testing mobile testing and rapid diagnostics.

An interesting definition suggested by an irish group who recently completed a survey of poct in irish hospitals is point of care testing is defined as a quality assured pathology service using analytical devices including test kits and analysers such as blood gas and critical care analysers and meters for glucose urinalysis and other metabolites provided near to the patient rather than. Its strange to recall that many clinical chemists were antipathetic to the idea of point of care testing poct when it first became feasible seeing it as retrogressive and a step back into ward side room testing a barrier to the advances of clinical laboratory science and a threat to their own livelihoods. Point of care poc or with patient testing allows physicians and medical staff to accurately achieve real time lab quality diagnostic results within minutes rather than hours.