Ginny Einfalt at Virtua West Jersey Hospital asks:

>>We have an ongoing issue with the pathology office about whether or not the 
office where the girls transcribe should be considered a clean area. Since 
all of the computer requisitions are single pages, they are circulated from 
the pocket of the biohazard bag the specimen arrives in, to the accessioning 
table, to the grossing area, handled by the PA and passed on to the 
transcriptionists who believe that they work in a "clean area". What are the 
protocols in other pathology offices?<<

I'm sure this is one more way for the Herrn Inspektors to bedevil us, so 
don't go giving them ideas! - In quite a number of labs I've worked in, I've 
never seen a transcription area treated as a "dirty area", though in the lab 
I'm working in this week, I started identifying the requisition cards as 
"dirty cards" several years ago, and this has become the standard designation 
for them there.

By the way, in this particular lab all three "girls" transcribing are 
grandmothers. (Still beautiful, tho.)

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist (links to pictures of my grandchildren on request)
Knoxville TN