Laboratory H1N1 Specimen Shipping

Timely H1N1 Results for Acute Inpatients

Acute care sites should review shipping schedules with their laboratory for H1N1 samples to BCCDC.  There have been consistent reports of a 4 – 5 days lag time in receiving these samples.

• CDC is reporting out results at this time within 24 hours
• Upon investigation in FH acute facilities, it has been determined that samples are not being shipped in a timely fashion, resulting in the 4 – 5 day lag time reported.
• The result of this delay in acute settings:
• people are being kept on the modified droplet precautions for days longer than necessary (in some cases in private rooms)
• new patients (who may be positive for influenza) are waiting for these spaces
• To accommodate patient flow we need to ensure that swabs are sent out quickly.
• A secondary delay is caused by lag time in entering the information into our information systems when the result is received.
• Please investigate this process and ensure that there is a responsible person to enter this information on all three shifts.
• CDC is at capacity at this time in its labs, and may be running overtime processing which means that faxes may come at any time of the day.
• In order to have a sample on a run for the day, it has to be in the CDC lab by 11am. (this means it was accepted into shipping, accessioned, and sent to the 3rd floor virology lab)