The PeriNatal Laboratory is a section of the Division of Clinical Pathology in the Department of Pathology at the University Medical Center. This lab is inspected by the College of American Pathologists. Therefore, policies and procedures are written in accordance with those standards.
Location: The PeriNatal Laboratory is located on the first floor of the Winfred L. Wiser Hospital for Women and Infants, room W153-1.
Telephone:
Any inquiries pertaining to this lab should be directed to the following:
- William A. Rock, Jr., M.D., Director ...................................................................... Ext. 42354
- Judith E. Guthrie, BS, MT (ASCP), Chief Technologist ..................................... Ext. 57194
- Brenda Y. Wallace, BS, MT (ASCP) Assistant Chief Technologist ............... Ext. 57193
Hours of Operation: The PeriNatal Laboratory is in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The backup for the PeriNatal Lab is the Acute Care Laboratory or the Division of Clinical Pathology. Routine collection times for NICU East and NICU West are 6 am, 12 noon, 6 pm, and 12 midnight, seven days/week. Routine collection times for the Newborn Nursery, Monday through Friday, are 8:30 am and 1 pm, Saturday and Sunday, 9 am only. The PeriNatal Lab does not provide service for general clinic and hospital pediatric patients, but is reserved for nursery patients, labor and delivery and pediatric surgery. The PeriNatal Lab does provide blood gases and fFn’s for the Winfred L. Wiser Hospital for Women.
Objective: The PeriNatal Laboratory provides stat results on full term newborns and premature newborns in the Newborn Nursery, Transition Nursery, NICU East and NICU West. Our goal is to provide these results using the least amount of blood possible. Therefore, all the tests performed in the PeriNatal Laboratory can be done on microsamples.
Consultations: If any problems should arise, or any special circumstances occur, please contact the chief technologist. The pathology staff and resident are available 24 hours/day for problems. See current monthly call schedule for after hours, weekends and holidays.
Emergency Requests: All samples are performed when received. Routine samples should be batched at the collection times listed above.
Collection of Specimens: All specimens collected by the PeriNatal Laboratory personnel will be done by heelstick only. Heelsticks will not be performed on babies who have A-lines, UACs, etc. unless authorized by attending physician. A valid glucose can not be performed on line specimens if glucose is being administered through the line. A heelstick will be performed if requested by the attending physicians or resident.
Heelsticks should be performed using the Tenderfoot Device or approved Heel Lancet. Other devices are not safe for neonates and should not be used. The area recommended for collection is the shaded area shown in the diagram below.
Recommendations for heel skin puncture in newborn infants:
- Perform punctures on the most medial or most lateral portion of the plantar surface (outside of the lines on the diagram).
- Puncture no deeper than 2.4 mm.
- Do not perform punctures on the posterior curvature of the heel.
- Do not puncture through previous sites which may be infected.
Reference Section: Notice to all outreach facilities: The proper preservation of specimens is critical to accurate measurement. If your facility (by virtue of its location) will be sending specimens to UMC for arrival in excess of the time defined in the Laboratory Handbook for processing, you will need to prepare and store the specimen in a different manner and contact the specific lab for special instructions. For the PeriNatal Lab section the following are the most common tests in this lab requiring special preparation and preservation when there is a delay arriving in the UMC main laboratory.
FFN (fetal Fibronectins) - Refrigerate and run within 24 hours.