Point of care (POC) monitoring in anesthesia and intensive care - An overview of available POC systems

There is an increasing trend to have data rapidly ready at the patient's bedside. The general principle behind point-of-care (POC) testing is that "faster is better" (from vein to brain'). The entire process for laboratory testing includes withdrawal of blood into special (pre-labelled) tubes, transportation of the sample to the central laboratory where the plasma is separated from the blood cells by centrifugation, carefully pippeting of a defined volume of plasma that is placed in the analyzer. POC instruments provide us with the potential to do old things in new ways. With the help of portable POC analyzers a variety of laboratory parameters including coagulation parameters, blood gas analysis, electrolytes, markers of organ function can be measured next to the patient's bed thus significantly shorting turnaround-time (TAT). Cost analyses of new monitoring devices are necessary in today's climate of cost savings. It is important to capture all costs and not only costs of the test kits. Direct costs (e.g. test cartridges, costs for the analyzers, cost for quality control) may constitute only a small percentage of the true costs. Hidden costs consist of overhead costs (e.g. transportation) and the consequences of delayed results. The present overview summarizes the available POC systems in Germany and may serve as a decision maker for those who are interested in introducing POC monitoring systems.