With these two issues raised, he introduced this situation: You are a laboratory director for a stat lab and POC program (operating under the same CLIA number), both doing plasma PT/INR, and your POC program supports several dozen nonwaived whole blood POC INR meters. Last month: Personnel paradox and more: POC pitfallsĪlso tricky, he said, is how laboratories should handle PT for POC programs when they’re under the same CLIA certificate as the lab, and when they’re not. PT materials designed for whole blood INR may not work well for laboratory methods. Even if you confirm all point-of-care INRs over five with plasma, you can’t do that for PT if you’re crossing a CLIA license-and there is some risk for doing this within a CLIA lab unless the SOP is very clear on what situations require a lab confirmation of POC INR.” There are also practical considerations and limitations to confirmatory testing, he added. You certainly can’t refer it between labs A and B if they operate under separate CLIA licenses. “We always say treat and monitor PT like a patient specimen,” he said, adding, “It’s complicated because there are times when you cannot treat your PT like a patient sample. And in 2016 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said labs are “not allowed to report PT on more than one instrument or method unless that’s how all patient results are reported.” Karon, who is also co-director of Mayo’s stat labs and point-of-care testing programs. PT has unique aspects related to point of care because point-of-care programs tend to employ high numbers of devices, said Dr. (Part one is published in the November issue.) They used scenarios to illustrate how best to approach PT, the IQCP, and CAP inspections for POC testing. Karon, MD, PhD, chair of the Division of Clinical Core Laboratory Services, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic. Perry, MD, medical director of pathology at Methodist Hospital in Omaha, Neb., and Bradley S. These and other tips come from a CAP19 session, “Point-of-care testing pitfalls: what you don’t know can hurt you,” presented by Deborah A.