title: Neonatal bilirubin testing practices: reports from 312 laboratories enrolled in the Colege of American Pathologists Excel Proficiency Testing Program.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To characterize laboratory practices for neonatal bilirubin testing and to identify opportunities for improvement.
  
  
  METHODS
  A voluntary self-assessment questionnaire was used to assess the laboratory practices of 312 laboratories subscribing to the College of American Pathologists (CAP) Excel Chemistry Proficiency Testing Program.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A range of preanalytic and analytic practices were reported. The most notable problems identified were the use of overly long capillary puncture devices (17.8%), failure to protect the specimen from light prior to analysis (3.4%), failure to use a control containing >171 micromol/L bilirubin (26.1%), use of single-level control (4.2%), and lack of established linearity limits (7.0%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Opportunities exist to improve specimen collection, processing, and analysis for some physician-office and small-hospital laboratories.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic and Mayo Foundation, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. dale.jane@mayo.edu
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Dale
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Hamrick
mesh_terms: D001663:Bilirubin / Q000097:blood*; D006403:Hematologic Tests / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007565:Jaundice / Q000097:blood; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards; D007755:Laboratories, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D010338:Pathology, Clinical / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D011786:Quality Control; D012955:Societies, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D001663:Bilirubin