Why does it take so long to get test results from things like blood work when you go to the emergency room at a hospital
In: Biology
Phlebotomist/lab tech here: Frequently we’re not interested in the red or white blood cells in a blood sample nor the blood as a whole, but what’s in the plasma. The liquid part of the blood that functions as a the transport medium for everything but oxygen and co2. So you have to centrifuge it, spin it very fast for quite a while, to separate the blood. 10-15 minutes minimum usually.
For a lot of tests the platelets in your blood (clotting elements) can interfere with the tests or actually damage the equipment. For those, you have wait for the blood to clot before you can put it in the spin. Another 20-30 minutes. What’s left is called serum.
Some tests can also require a spin, separate, spin again process. Particularly coagulation tests. Which can take 30+ minutes of just spinning, much less processing and testing.
Other tests, particularly cultures, can take time to prepare. The amount of bacteria in the blood that would be enough to cause illness isn’t detectable to the testing equipment, so you literally just put the blood in a nutrient solution and let it sit so the bacteria can multiply enough to be detectable.
All of those are minimum times, then add in the human times. The time to draw the blood, transport it to the proper location, get a technician and machine free to start the process and be available for each process step. And then to get the information to the doc, time for them to interpret the data, and then get back to you with the results. Some tests can be done instantly, usually called Point of Care testing, but many cannot.
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