Specimen Collection

Do we really follow specimen collection guidelines? The CLSI…

(Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute) provides careful guidelines for coagulation test specimens in H21-A4, “Collection, transport, and processing blood specimens for testing plasma-based coagulation assays and molecular hemostasis assays”, approved guideline–fifth edition.

I’m curious how well we follow our guidelines. For instance, do we really separate and begin to process specimens for PTT-based heparin assays within one hour of collection? Do we check for complete fills?

Just curious. Geo