BLOG

Thirty three years ago, the development of Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA ‘88), introduced point-of-care testing (POCT), also known as near-patient testing, remote testing, satellite testing, and rapid diagnostics. POCT is diagnostic medical testing performed at or near the point of care of a patient. It is important to note that obtaining results from traditional laboratory is very time consuming. To de-crease turnaround time (TAT), the time from ordering a test to treating the patient, medical personnel are increasingly interested in using POCT; which allows physicians and medical staff to accurately achieve real-time, quality diagnostic results within minutes, as opposed to hours. Through using portable diagnostic machines, testing pushes the diagnostic process to help ensure patients receive the most effective care as soon as possible where it’s needed. Results from clinical labs are a crucial component to healthcare systems and with POCT, tests can be performed outside the standard laboratory and right wherever a patient is, providing faster test results. The most common POCT tests include blood glucose monitoring, home pregnancy tests, rapid strep, hemoglobin, as well as prothrombin time/international normalized ratio tests. For example, the rapid strep test allows for patients to be treated earlier and reduces the risk of complications from not treating it.