Why is my Blood work taking so long?!


Question: Why is my Blood work taking so long?
I went last wednesday and got blood work done and a pap-smear and they told me I should get a call by monday , today is tuesday and i called this morning , and she told me the results are not in yet.. Im wondering what do you guys think the delay is? if it was something , would they still keep running test or am i just over reacting?

Answers:

It depends on what blood tests your doctor ordered. Simple blood tests like electrolytes, blood cell counts, urinalysis, etc. are usually done by a local lab nearby and the results are usually available within a day or two at most. If your doctor ordered anything even remotely more exotic, like hormone levels, then those tests are usually sent to a referral lab, which can be hundreds if not thousands of miles away. The specimens are usually shipped overnight, so the delay is at most maybe another 48 hours. Most referral labs don't work on weekends. Many of these hormone tests aren't run every day, either. The less-frequently-ordered tests may only be run by the reference lab once or twice a week, because the kits to run these tests usually are designed to run several at a time, and once the kit is opened, it must be used within a day or two, and all the specimens in the kit must be run at the same time. For example, if the kit can run up to 5 specimens at a time, the reference lab may wait until they receive at least 3 specimens all needing the same test, because the kit costs the lab the same whether they use it to run 5 specimens or just one specimen. This can delay a result for up to 2 weeks (the lab usually won't wait longer than that to run the test for you, even if there are no other specimens, and they'll just "eat" the cost of the kit for you, because they don't want the specimen to go bad). There are some tests that simply take more than a day or to to process, too, like surgical specimens from biopsies.
You may want to ask your doctor over the phone if any of your tests had to be sent to a specialty lab, which would explain the delay. The front-office staff often have no clue how about the average tunr-around time for any but the most common lab tests.
I definitely would NOT be anxious about the delay, although I do sympathize with you about it.

I am a physician with over 18 years od experience.



Depends on what tests they ran. Some tests take longer than others because: 1. they are only done certain days of the week to be more cost effective, 2. a specific test ordered is a special test that has to be sent to a different facility therefore taking additional time, 3. doctor got some of the results and decided to add a few more tests on (or they realized they missed ordering a test since they do that sometime but if they needed more tests in the sense you are wondering you would most likely need to be redrawn so you would know), 4. maybe the results are coming by snail mail, that depends on the facility running the tests and the doctors office (some just want snail mail, others like them faxed) 5. paps take forever and the lab may have had a huge batch at a time meaning they are taking a little longer than normal. All are possibilities, odds are it could be a combination. You are most likely overreacting. Most facilities say a week but most send things out in the night meaning done in 7 with reports printed out and another day for the results to get to the doctor making 8. Don't worry about it. If anything was seriously wrong the doctor would have been called on it the moment the result was determined.




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