Bones
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Posts: 33
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Post by Bones on Aug 21, 2023 18:18:42 GMT
So in the beginning of the year, we switched our lab company over to Ascend Labs. I've been... less than thrilled with their performance. It was sloppy and haphazard starting off. Things began to slowly cool down the next couple months. Then.... the summer hit. Clinics across the country are experiencing high colony count and endotoxin results. What is troubling is that its coming not only clinics whom have had routine water issues, but clinics with no known water issues as well. Was wondering if y'all are also seeing this trend in your respective companies.
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Post by Chuck Weddle on Aug 21, 2023 21:04:35 GMT
We've used Ascend for quite a few years now and it seems like we tend to have more elevated colony counts every summer. My guess is that the cold packs don't keep the samples cold enough but, the lab supposedly verifies their temperatures.
The biggest problem I've been having for the last 2 months is not receiving the text alerts for elevated results until 22 - 25 hours after the results are recorded and on some occasions I don't get them at all.
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Post by Stephen on Aug 22, 2023 14:33:10 GMT
Are you just having issues with Water or also with Dialysate samples? If you are having issues with the dialysate samples as well then it may be an issue with the lab. If not it could be the summer bloom or like you mentioned issues with the Ice packs. Try asking the lap if Dry Ice can be used as a substitute. Also take the same samples and do a test run with a different Lab. I've had the best results from Spectra Lab.
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Bones
New Member
Posts: 33
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Post by Bones on Aug 22, 2023 17:06:14 GMT
We've used Ascend for quite a few years now and it seems like we tend to have more elevated colony counts every summer. My guess is that the cold packs don't keep the samples cold enough but, the lab supposedly verifies their temperatures. The biggest problem I've been having for the last 2 months is not receiving the text alerts for elevated results until 22 - 25 hours after the results are recorded and on some occasions I don't get them at all. Luckily I haven't experienced issues with receiving alerts. Biggest annoyance honestly is the fact they are on the west coast and were on the East Coast. Good to know about elevated colony counts during the summer. Thinking the heat is playing a major role with samples at the moment. We were initially told to throw all labs including clinical together. Then it was a separate bag in the same box. Now we send them in our own box but they wanted us to use the small containers with the even smaller ice packs. We're just throwing everything in Medium boxes with regular size ice packs to help try to mitigate the temperature issues. Gotta figure that FedEx truck is hot. Going to the airport.. hot. On the tarmac... hot. Y'all get my point. Its hot. Can't imagine what the temps of the labs could possibly be after a certain amount of time... But I think an experiment is in order. |
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Bones
New Member
Posts: 33
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Post by Bones on Aug 22, 2023 17:07:43 GMT
Are you just having issues with Water or also with Dialysate samples? If you are having issues with the dialysate samples as well then it may be an issue with the lab. If not it could be the summer bloom or like you mentioned issues with the Ice packs. Try asking the lap if Dry Ice can be used as a substitute. Also take the same samples and do a test run with a different Lab. I've had the best results from Spectra Lab. Luckily no Dialysate sample issues.. yet. I doubt ascend would allow us to use Dry Ice.. they are pretty stingy on supplies as is. We use to have Spectra Labs... I would give anything to get them back. |
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Post by Chuck Weddle on Aug 22, 2023 18:31:15 GMT
I would think dry ice would freeze the samples.
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Bones
New Member
Posts: 33
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Post by Bones on Jun 14, 2024 10:32:08 GMT
Funny enough.. as it cooled down, so did our issues here. LAL and endos eventually went back down and were good from October until this month. Fast forward to June 2024. I now have the same issues, high endo and colony count issues. It's also hot. We've doubled the amount of ice packs in the boxes. We now disinfect the R.O. monthly instead of quarterly with minncare, along with the loop being done monthly. Results have looked great up until this week. I still believe Ascend is a big part of the issue here. We never experienced issues like this previously when we were with Spectra. Company won't fork the money to deal with another lab, so I'm stuck with them for now. I really don't want another 4 months of battling the cultures. Any other ideas?
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Post by Chuck Weddle on Jun 14, 2024 10:47:50 GMT
In May, my problems started again also BUT at only one facility (so far).
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Post by dave74 on Jun 14, 2024 11:27:23 GMT
Have you contacted Ascend as to what condition the samples are in when the arrive? Has all the ice melted? Are the samples cold, cool or warm, etc.?
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Post by Chuck Weddle on Jun 14, 2024 11:51:10 GMT
Have you contacted Ascend as to what condition the samples are in when the arrive? Has all the ice melted? Are the samples cold, cool or warm, etc.? Absolutely. And they get somewhat indignant for questioning their processes. Boxes sitting in the sun all day, transported in a metal box (oven) and they insist that the little ice packs keep the samples at the appropriate temperature. They also insist that the temperature of every package is checked and the samples rejected if not correct. |
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Post by motorsports on Jun 21, 2024 16:59:43 GMT
Who did you labs before? D&D Labs in SC works well for us and we are located more Mid-Westerly. Also I agree with higher source water temps and ice packs not being enough for the heat. We make the effort to include 2 ice packs with our samples during heat waves.
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Bones
New Member
Posts: 33
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Post by Bones on Jul 12, 2024 14:13:28 GMT
motorsports - We used Spectra. They won't shell out money for D&D. We are a little cheap... @chuck Weddle - I called Ascend based on everyone's advice. The reply was "we check everyone box upon arrival for temperatures being within range." I asked if I could see the temp's and they said they don't have it. I asked if the ice packs are still frozen, cold, luke warm.. anything. She said she couldn't provide that information. I'm wondering what they can provide...
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Post by pecodee on Jul 12, 2024 14:44:58 GMT
Fellows run your own test, pack a box as usual without real samples.
Then put them in your car about the same time as usual let it sit over
night. Might even put it in a vehicle that's sit in the sun for a little while
to simulate conditions on the delivery truck process. Then check in the morning
about the time it should arrive at the lab. But will should how reliable the
packing process is. Now when the samples get to the lab, how long
do they wait to check them in is another issue. a lot of other stuff can happen
once arrived at the Lab.
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Post by Chuck Weddle on Jul 12, 2024 14:49:26 GMT
We're also spanked if we don't use the correct size box. If we're only sending a few samples we're supposed to use the small boxes that take the mini ice packs that are about 4" square and flat like a pancake. How is something like that supposed to keep samples cool in these summer temperatures?
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joey
Full Member
Posts: 245
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Post by joey on Jul 26, 2024 11:46:26 GMT
Funny enough.. as it cooled down, so did our issues here. LAL and endos eventually went back down and were good from October until this month. Fast forward to June 2024. I now have the same issues, high endo and colony count issues. It's also hot. We've doubled the amount of ice packs in the boxes. We now disinfect the R.O. monthly instead of quarterly with minncare, along with the loop being done monthly. Results have looked great up until this week. I still believe Ascend is a big part of the issue here. We never experienced issues like this previously when we were with Spectra. Company won't fork the money to deal with another lab, so I'm stuck with them for now. I really don't want another 4 months of battling the cultures. Any other ideas? Is spectra labs really more expensive than Ascend? We switched because we had issues years and years ago and Spectra was cheaper and I've only had one issue where I had multiple results come back bad from the same shipment, other than that it's been great. |
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