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Pathology Reception Part of the Pathology request registration area

Good Hope Pathology currently performs over 1.5 million patient investigations per year
             


Intended audience

This information is provided for the guidance of existing clients of the Pathology Department and for potential users of the Service. New house staff and ward sisters are welcome to visit the laboratory where staff will be pleased to show them the departments and advise on services available.  General Practitioners, Practice Managers and Practice Nurses are also welcome to visit the laboratory. 
To arrange a visit, please contact the Pathology Services Manager, Catherine Tate on ext. 2237.

Location

Click on the link to see a plan of the Hospital site with the location of Pathology identified Plan of Hospital site (860k image)

The Pathology Department is situated on the Good Hope General Hospital site at the bottom of the main car park, near to the Partnership Learning Centre (previously the Post Graduate Centre) and next to the new Treatment Centre. 
The Pathology entrance is at the side of the Pathology block facing the Partnership Learning Centre or via the main hospital corridor.
Use the link above for a plan of the Hospital site or go to the main Good Hope Hospital Trust web site for a plan of the Hospital site plus maps and directions for travelling to Good Hope Hospital.
There is a charge for patients and visitors using the Pay & Display Car Park.

Good Hope Hospital Phlebotomy Service

General Practice Phlebotomy
The Good Hope Consultant Out-Patient phlebotomy service is not intended or resourced to be a 'drop in' service for general practice patients.  
Practices must make their own phlebotomy service arrangements.

 Out Patient Phlebotomy
Consultant Out-Patients' Phlebotomy is performed in the Out-Patient Department.
 The phlebotomy department room is on the ground floor of Out-Patients and is located to the right of the Main Reception behind the news stand. There are signs around the hospital directing patients to "blood tests".
Opening times are 0900 to 1700 Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays). No appointment is necessary.  See also :  information for patients.

 In Patient Phlebotomy
In-Patients' Phlebotomy - The Haematology Department operates the hospital phlebotomy service and any queries relating to this service should be addressed to the Phlebotomy Services Manager (ext. 2205) or the Head Biomedical Scientist (ext. 2200). The service operates on all wards at Good Hope Hospital except the Intensive Therapy Unit and all Maternity wards

The Phlebotomy Service operates daily, although it is important to note that the Saturday and Sunday Phlebotomy Services should only be used to collect samples which are essential to the immediate management of patients.  Routine diagnostic samples will be collected Monday through Friday.

The following guidelines should be followed to make optimum use of the service:-
1 Medical staff must arrange with the laboratory for the processing of urgent samples and must collect such samples themselves.
2 Requests for phlebotomists should be written up and left at the collection point on each ward before 7.30 am each day (most requests will be written up on the previous evening).
3 Requests will not normally be accepted after the 7.30 am deadline
4 If the phlebotomists are unable to obtain samples for any reason, they will return the request for the Doctor's attention.
5 Do not request the phlebotomists to collect "timed" samples (eg Digoxin, Antibiotic levels) or blood cultures. Medical staff are responsible for collecting these samples
 

Note that it is the Laboratory's intention to return reports to the wards on the same day that the phlebotomists collect the samples, except where further tests may be generated as a result of initial analysis.  Before telephoning the laboratory for a result, the envelope containing Pathology reports should be opened or a complete result enquiry carried out on the ward PC

24 Hour Service

Biochemistry and Haematology operate a 24 hour service, seven days per week. Microbiology operate on-call via switch board after 18:30 hours on weekdays and after 1700 hours on Saturdays and Sundays.

Urgent Samples

Good Hope Hospital requests

All urgent requests should be telephoned to the laboratory in advance, except those from :

Special Care Baby Unit, High Dependancy Unit, Accident & Emergency, Surgical Assessment Unit, Emergency Medical Assessment Unit, Harvey Ward , Intensive Therapy Unit, Ward 7, Child Assessment Unit  and Paediatric in-patients.


General Practice requests

It has come to our notice that there is a problem in identifying urgent samples from the community (especially when they are mixed in with routine samples) and with contacting medical staff with the results.

Therefore we are proposing the following system:

  • Ensure that the Urgent box on the request form is ticked. (This is the easiest way for us to spot urgent samples.)
  • Ensure that there is a clearly written contact name and telephone number on the request form.
  • The requester telephones Pathology Reception on 0121 378 6260 (Direct Line).
  • Do not telephone the individual departments as our reception staff will do this for you-a single call is all that is needed.
  • We will call you as soon as the results are available.
 

Supplies of request forms & sample/specimen containers

Printed request forms and sample/specimen containers are issued from Pathology Stores (ext. 2217). Requisition forms are available.    Click to view photo
See also - out of date specimen containers



Sample and request form acceptance policy

We can only respond to what we can read.
It is the requester's responsibility to ensure that forms are completed clearly and unequivocally. 
Pathology staff cannot 'second guess' what a requester's true intentions were.

In order to comply with National Guidelines on sample labelling, as from the 1st January 2006 the criteria below will be applicable for the acceptance of routine samples submitted to the Pathology Department.

N.B. Samples for Blood Transfusion and the N.B.S. have more stringent criteria. See the Transfusion pages for details

For Biochemistry requests, please also refer to Biochemistry Departments Guidance on completion of request forms

Samples will not be accepted for processing by Pathology if:

  1. The samples are unlabelled or incorrectly matched with the request form.
  2. The samples are received in a hazardous condition, i.e. leaked into the bag.
  3. Incorrect storage and/or transport of samples is obvious, 
    e.g. Biochemistry Blood specimens incubated rather than  refrigerated.

 
Criteria for the Acceptance of Samples
  Essential Desirable
Samples Patient’s full name - spelt correctly.
Or an anonymised coded identifier

Date of Birth  and/or  hospital or NHS number.

Sample type. 
Mandatory for Cytology, Histology & Microbiology

 Date and Time

Destination for Report

Sample type.
Sample type is essential for Microbiology, Cytology & Histology
Request Form Patient’s full name - spelt correctly 
Or proper anonymised coded identifier

Date of Birth

Hospital number  and/or  NHS number.
NHS number is mandatory on Cytology & Histology forms.

Patient’s location (destination for report).

The requesting doctor (consultant or GP).
Histology & Cytology require the patient's consultant/GP and the requesting practitioner.

Sample type
Mandatory for Cytology & Microbiology

 

 Date and time sample was collected.
This may be essential for certain investigations

Patient’s address.

Patient’s sex.

Requester's  bleep number.

Sample type.

Clinical information

 


All request forms conform to modern safety standards for specimen handling.
Please refer to Histology/Cytology and Transfusion pages for information about their particular request forms.
Reports cannot be issued unless the hospital, ward or other source is clearly stated on the request form

Out of date (expired) specimen containers
Out of date specimen containers must not be used.
Samples received in out of date containers will not be processed.
Stocks of your specimen containers should be rotated to ensure that containers with the shortest shelf life are used first.
Containers nearing their expiry date should be returned to the Pathology Department for replacement with new containers.
Please see any additional Departmental specific details under relevant Department pages.

 

 

Ordering Supplementary tests

Occasionally supplementary tests are requested on samples which have previously been sent to Pathology.
It is usually possible to perform these extra tests on samples received on the same day, but requests for extra tests received at a later date must always be discussed with the appropriate Pathology Department and an 'Add on Tests' form must be completed. The following are guidelines on the time limits for requesting additional investigations on the initial sample. 

Microbiology
Serum from blood samples is stored for 6 months and further investigations may be performed on these samples by arrangement with the Microbiology Department.
All other sample types are only suitable for testing on the day they are initially received into the Laboratory. 
Requests for extra tests received after this day generally require a fresh sample to be submitted.

Haematology
Supplementary investigations may be requested on a sample if the Haematology Department are contacted within 24hrs of the original sample receipt time. Otherwise a fresh sample is generally required.

Biochemistry
On many occasions, extra investigations may be requested on a sample up to 5 days after initial receipt.  However, this will be dependent on the sample type and the extra investigations which are required.  The Biochemistry Department must be contacted to discuss extra testing. Also refer to 'Requesting additional tests in Biochemsitry'


Availability of Reports    Also See the section on Ward results enquiry

Biochemistry & Haematology
Reports are generally available on the same day that tests are performed. (Occasionally, some tests may take longer to complete).
Microbiology
Reports are normally available within 24 - 48 hrs
Histology
Reports take a minimum of 3 working days.  The actual time taken will depend on the size and complexity of the specimen.
Cytology
Urgent samples take 24 -48 hours if received on Monday - Thursday. 3 days if received on Friday
Routine Non-Gynae 4 days
Priority Gynae 8 days
Routine Gynae 1 - 4 weeks but generally within 2 weeks.
There is a facsimile machine within Pathology, which can be used if urgent reports are required.

 

Specimen Collection and Pathology Report Service

Good Hope Hospital
Samples are collected from wards every hour and a half and reports are delivered at 9.00 am, 12.00 noon and 3.00 pm.

Lichfield / Tamworth Hospitals
Pathology operates a transport service (Mon - Fri) to Lichfield and Tamworth Hospitals leaving Pathology Reception at 10.30 am, arriving back at approximately 1.00 pm, and 4.30 pm, arriving back at approximately 6.30 pm and collects samples from Lichfield and Tamworth Hospitals.

General Practitioners
A Courier Service operates for General Practitioners, between 12.00 noon and 2.00 pm.

Birmingham Hospitals
Pathology operates a daily transport service (Monday - Friday) to all of the Birmingham Hospitals and BTS leaving Pathology Reception at 1.45 pm.

Enquiries

Laboratory staff will be pleased to assist with enquiries and information on tests not mentioned on this website. Telephone the appropriate department of Pathology (via Switchboard), the Customer Service Direct lines or Pathology Reception for re-direction.

Routine telephone result enquiries are not encouraged
Giving results over the telephone is time consuming to both parties and, more importantly, carries a high potential for mistakes.
Telephone enquiries from Good Hope wards for routine results are therefore NOT encouraged - results should be obtained from the Hospital PaWS computer system on a ward or Dept PC.  

See PaWS result enquiry page

Storage of Request Forms

The Pathology Department only has limited storage space. We can, therefore, only guarantee storage of request forms for a period of 3 months after receipt of the request. If this is likely to cause problems to any of our users, please contact the relevant department for further advice.

Handling of known or suspected high risk samples

All biological specimens are a potential hazard to all staff who may come into contact with them and the Pathology Department operates a policy of Universal Precautions.
Requests from high risk patients should be restricted to the minimum required for immediate management of the patient.
High Risk Samples/Specimens
These include cases of:-
   1  Jaundice of uncertain aetiology.
   2  Known or suspected Hepatitis B surface antigen, Hepatitis C, and HIV    positive patients.
   3  Infective or suspected infective diseases of the liver.
   4  'At risk' groups, i.e. homosexuals, known drug abusers, haemophiliacs and those who have had  multiple transfusions.

Postal Packaging & Labelling

The combined sample/specimen bag and request forms supplied by the Pathology Laboratory are suitable if a "Danger of Infection" label is applied.
Any other sample/specimen sent from high risk patients must be sent in a securely closed leak-proof container, within a plastic bag, labeled with a "Danger of Infection" or "Biohazard" label.
The accompanying request forms must be attached to the outside of the bag.

Audit and Data Analyses

The Laboratory is pleased to assist Hospital Doctors and General Practitioners in Medical Audit, and a number of successful projects have already been completed. Please do not hesitate to discuss any topics of interest with any of the Heads of Department.

The Pathology Department is very willing to assist Consultants or GPs with any data analyses they require.  Investigation activity, results analyses and other data interrogations can all be arranged on request. 
Contact Brian Downing (Pathology computer Manager) initially on Ext.2228 or email  brian.downing@goodhope.nhs.uk

Complaints

A Complaints Procedure operates in Pathology. Where a formal complaint is made by a patient, relative or representative of a patient concerning the services provided, the Laboratory shall conduct a full investigation and take any necessary corrective action.
Any user of the service shall have access to the complaints register to allow the follow-up of any complaints. The above complaints procedure and agreement is subject to statutory, legal and confidentiality constraints.

Quality Assessment

All departments participate in Accredited External Quality Assessment Schemes (EQAS) where available. Full details of the External Quality Assessment reports are open to inspection in the presence of the Head of Department, or designated members of the Laboratory.

Pathology Reporting

Reports are issued on pre-printed stationery with reference ranges wherever appropriate and suitable comments to aid interpretation of results. 
However, results are also available to Good Hope wards on the PaWS system (See earlier) and the majority of GPs now also receive reports electronically.