hi,
    The main thing that needs to be emphasized is the quality of the
specimens you
receive. If you have the specimens delivered with out any fixative at
all, you will
inevitably have some autolysis. If you use a fixative other than
formalin, any immuno
stains you do may be adversely affected. Herceptest will no longer be
FDA approved.
The other option is to have the OR staff have training on formalin.
Perhaps
monitoring is in order. It may be a good idea to get a baseline
monitoring to
determine if the risk is great enough to warrant future monitoring. The
main issue is
the quality of the specimens and weather the hazards are worth the risk
of
compromising that specimen quality.
Amos Brooks

Kathy Gorham wrote:

> Hi fellow histotechs:
>         I need some help and/or advice.  We had a mock JCAH inspection last week.
> One of the problem area's seem to be the formalin in the O.R..  We are a
> small hospital, One Histotech and one part time aide.  Our hours are 6am to
> 3:30pm  Mon - Fri.  We have one full time and one part time pathologist.
> We have been fighting with O.R since opening our lab 22 years ago about
> formalin and cutting open the specimens. The R.N's in surgery don't want
> anything to do with the specimens.  The inspector says we need to get the
> formalin out of O.R or have in monitored like we do in our lab. And of
> course the O.R. crew jumped on the band wagon to get rid of formalin. So
> our question is "Do you use formalin in O.R.?"  We are afraid that if we
> don't continue having O.R fixed the tissues they will forget to do it after
> hours or on week ends.  Is anyone out there using a sub. for formalin?
> What are you using and what are the results? Thanks for your help.