Amy,
We take the temps of each individual bath, but beware. During one of my
inspections, an inspector had his own thermometer and tested the temps.
Although we had the temps at 60C, the baths read 65C. This was out of our
range and he wrote me up. I called Sakura tech rep and had them explain to
the inspector why the temp difference. Tech support told the inspector that
the baths were hotter to account for the paraffin cooling off during
transfer to the retort chamber. He bought it. 
	And people wonder why I have a negative attitude about CAP. How many
people have been inspected by an inspector who carries his/her own
thermometer?  I should have asked him to show me documentation that it was
calibrated.

Joe "The Toe" Nocito

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces@lists.utsouthwestern.edu
[mailto:histonet-bounces@lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Amy Porter
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 3:13 PM
To: Histonet
Subject: [Histonet] Tissue Processor Paraffin Temps for CAP Inspections

If your willing to share - how are people monitoring the temperature of
paraffin baths on tissue processors?  Are you using additional thermometers
directly into the paraffin baths, or just going by the digital read out on
the display for the (oven on a VIP) instrument?  Just curious how everyone
is dealing with this particular item.  Thanks in advance for the many
responses and ideas I know I will get from asking this question!
Amy S. Porter, HT(ASCP) QIHC
Laboratory Supervisor
Michigan State University
Investigative HistoPathology Laboratory 
Department of Physiology / Division of Human Pathology
2100 Biomedical Physical Sciences Bldg. Room #2133
East Lansing, MI  48824-3320
Phone:  (517) 355-6475 ext 1480 / Fax:  (517) 432-1368
Email:  portera@msu.edu
www.humanpathology.msu.edu

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