Phone results to the physician or nurse in charge of the patient and identify results as critical values. If unavailable, results may be given to responsible person delegated by nursing floor.

Test results that continue in the critical range need not be phoned unless a significant change occurs.

Phone results to the physician/practitioner/location. If the outpatient is from a Salem Hospital outpatient service, such as SHAPES, or Home Care, page the RN on call.

Follow-up all calls with a fax report to the outpatient service office, with comment already appended.

Phone results directly to the facility. If the facility has multiple patient units, call directly to designated patient unit.

Follow-up phone call with immediate fax report with appended comment.

The nursing staff at the facility are responsible for calling the physician. If order is from an outreach hospital, phone results to their lab.

In every case, append a comment to the critical result, including the name of the person to whom the result was phoned, his/her location (if called to someone other than the physician) and the time of the call.

The technologist may delegate responsibility for phoning the report, however, it is still the technologist's responsibility to append the comment.

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