Recommendations of the German Working Group on Medical Laboratory Testing (AML) on the introduction and quality assurance of procedures for Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) in hospitals

The following recommendations were drawn up by the Working Group "Point-of- Care Testing" of the DGKC and DGLM which was set up in 1997. This first doc ument from the Working Group sets out the principles which should be observ ed when introducing point-of-care testing. These general recommendations are to be followed by further specific recomm endations on individual procedures or groups of procedures, e.g. blood gluc ose, electrolytes in whole blood, blood gases, coagulation, toxicology, qua lity control and others, which will be drawn up by experts at the suggestio n of the Working Group.