Near Patient Testing

Near-patient testing (NPT) aims to improve patient outcomes, shorten test turnaround times and facilitate early decision making through provision of a laboratory medicine service by healthcare professionals using small analytical devices. A NPT device is defined as any device that is not intended for self-testing but is intended to perform testing outside a laboratory environment, generally near to, or at the side of, the patient by a health care professional. Near-patient testing within St James’s Hospital incorporates, 210 devices (7 device types), across three different sites, generating >300,000 sets of results per annum.

When using NPT for clinical diagnostic purposes it is important that the quality of testing performed outside a central laboratory is assured and does not represent a patient safety risk. To this end the NPT service implements a Quality Management System that includes a programme of Internal Quality Control and External Quality Assurance.

The day-to-day running and management of the NPT service is overseen by a chief medical scientist and the NPT team. The governance of near-patient testing in St James’s Hospital comes under the near-patient testing committee. The clinical governance of the NPT service is overseen by a Laboratory Clinical Director, with device specific clinical lead(s) as applicable.

The primary source of information for users is the LabMed User Guide.

Near-patient testing is not routinely available for GP’s or external clinicians

Near-patient testing is not routinely available to GP’s.

Routine testing is available from core laboratories; refer to other departments within Laboratory Medicine and Molecular Pathology for further information