Q & A, 4/13
April 2013—In the point-of-care test for the determination of prothrombin time and International Normalized Ratio by fingerstick in a physician’s office, are controls (normal and elevated) available for adequate QC determination? Are physician office labs not governed by the same basic principles governing formal clinical laboratories? Are they permitted to run tests without running QC? Are there potential legal ramifications for having obtained an incorrect result for a POC test performed in a physician’s office without the proper use of QC, leading to a catastrophic patient result?