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Critical Value Table
The University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) has established critical values for the following tests; this Critical
Value policy is approved by the UMHS Executive Committee on Clinical Affairs. MLabs will notify the client by
telephone of results that are less than the specified Lower Limit or greater than the specified Upper Limit,
immediately upon verification of result accuracy.
Test Name
Lower Limit
Upper Limit
Chemistry
Drug Levels
Critical Value Table
Test Name
Lower Limit
Upper Limit
Critical Value Table
Test Name
Lower Limit
Upper Limit
Coagulation
Hematology
Absolute Neutrophil Count <0.5 K/uL and/or Positive Glucose and/or Ketones (age <30 days) Critical Value Table
Microbiology
MLabs will notify the client by telephone of positive results for any of the following tests, immediately upon
verification of accuracy. Notification will occur each day unless otherwise specified. Note that as a courtesy the
client may be notified of the results of other Microbiology tests not listed below at the technologist’s discretion or
physician request.
Blood Culture (positive stain and/or culture) (every 5 days) Body Fluid Culture – Synovial Fluid, Pericardial Fluid (positive stain and/or culture) (every 5 days) Cerebrospinal Fluid Culture (positive stain and/or culture) (every 5 days) Clostridium perfringes (positive Extremity culture) Fungus Smear (non septate hyphae in Nasal smear) Fusobacterium necrophorum (positive Head or Neck culture) Gram Stain – Sterile Fluids or Tissues Herpes simplex Encephalitis Detection by PCR Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA Amplification, Respiratory Staphylococcus aureus (Vancomycin intermediate or resistant) Tissue Culture – Internal Tissue/Abscess, Bone Marrow, Bone (positive stain and/or culture) (every 5 days)
Anatomic Pathology

MLabs will notify the client or caregiver by telephone or e-mail of any anatomic pathology result with potential to
negatively impact patient care if not communicated in an urgent or timely fashion.
any significant or unexpected diagnosis of malignancy (or vice versa) for which no equally timely and effective communication method (e.g. daily patient-based interaction with clinical colleagues) exists any significant disagreement with outside interpretation of TS cases for which no equally timely and effective communication method (e.g. daily patient-based interaction with clinical colleagues) exists any significant difference in final versus frozen section diagnosis any amended report reflecting a significant change in diagnosis pneumocystis, fungi, or viral cytopathic changes in BAL, wash, or brush discovery of clinically significant infections unexpected absence of chorionic villi in uterine curettings any findings likely to reflect either unrecognized perforation of an organ (e.g. fat in endometrial curettage or endoscopic polypectomy specimen), or unintended surgical consequences or misidentification of a specimen (e.g. ureter in specimen submitted as fallopian tube) biopsies from transplant patients showing either rejection or graft-versus-host disease evidence of an acute necrotizing vasculitic syndrome malignancy (suspected or not) in critical places (SVC syndrome, risk of spinal cord injury) in any cytology specimen disagreement between immediate interpretation and final interpretation in fine needle aspirate specimen

Source: http://www.paradigmdx.com/files/about_pdfs/POL-CRITICAL_VALUES%20Policy.pdf