title: Point of care testing in a large urban academic medical center: evolving test menu and clinical applications.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There have been many reports describing individual POCT technologies but there are no recent studies describing the organizational scope and impact of a POCT program.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our menu of POCT tests has increased to 26 and the test volume to 664,287 tests/year equivalent to 14.5% of the volume of the central core laboratory. POCT is performed in nearly all inpatient units and in a variety of outpatient settings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cumulatively 84.6% of the test volume and most testing sites can be accounted for by 4 traditional tests (bedside glucose testing, fecal occult blood, dipstick urinalysis and activated clotting time). Most POCT tests are not performed because of a true medical necessity but rather to improve the efficiency of clinical operations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We are experiencing a significant increase in requests for new POCT tests. Unlike established high volume conventional POC tests, these new requests originate from specialized services seeking to improve the efficiency of clinical operations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Gray 5 Chemistry, 55 Fruit Street Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lee-Lewandrowski
authors.forename: Kimberly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gregory
authors.forename: Kent
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lewandrowski
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*; D001780:Blood Coagulation Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007755:Laboratories, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009780:Occult Blood; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D016482:Urinalysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose