Management of a point-of-care program. Organization, quality assurance, and data management.

Management of a POCT program can be difficult. Cooperation and communication are essential. Creating an interdisciplinary POCT committee is key to successful management.

Clinical outcomes of point-of-care testing in the interventional radiology and invasive cardiology setting.

Background: Point-of-care testing (POCT) can provide rapid test results, but its impact on patient care is not well documented. We investigated the ability of POCT to decrease inpatient and outpatient waiting times for cardiovascular procedures.

Methods: We prospectively studied, over a 7-month period, 216 patients requiring diagnostic laboratory testing for coagulation (prothrombin time/activated partial thromboplastin time) and/or renal function (urea nitrogen, creatinine, sodium, and potassium) before elective invasive cardiac and radiologic procedures.