White Blood Cell Count in Primary Care
Send Patients Home With Answers,
Not Questions.
Take Advantage of Fast WBC at the Point of Care
To learn more about
WBC testing in primary care,
please visit hemocue.com
Solve Clinical Puzzles Faster
When patients come to you, it’s often in their most vulnerable states. Sick, worried,
stressed – they need answers. Yet, so often the only answer is to wait. That’s because
key blood tests you need for a full clinical picture have to be sent to a lab. A tough
situation for both you and your patient as it means cutting off the appointment and
finishing another day. At the cost of health, time and resources.
Now, HemoCue’s groundbreaking technology makes
it possible to get a lab-accurate white blood cell count
– either a total WBC or a total WBC with a 5-part
differential count – while the patient is still in your
office. That’s an immediate clinical puzzle piece that
can bring you closer to a conclusive answer and
treatment in a number of situations, including
unspecified symptoms such as fever or fatigue.
WBC
3 min.
WBC
DIFF
5 min.
Patient
history
WBC
Clinical
signs
Other
diagnostic
tests
WBC
Total
Count
WBC
Total
Count
Neutrophils
Lymphocytes
Monocytes
Eosinophils
Basophils
“Even if you get used to always having patients waiting, it is neither convenient for me, nor for
the families. Everything simply runs smoother when patients don’t have to wait.”
Jussi Niemelä, MD, PhD,
Department of Pediatrics at Turku University Hospital
Give Quicker Care and Minimize
Crowding in Your Waiting Room
With HemoCue WBC at the point of care, you can set
a new pace from assessment to treatment. In more
cases, your patients can gain access to the right care
faster — walking out with either treatment started or
immediate referrals for more targeted testing by
laboratories and specialists. WBC testing at the point of
care is a smart move for better patient care. Not to
mention the relief of minimizing crowding in waiting
rooms.
Make More Informed Decisions About
Antibiotics at the Point of Care
Thousands of patients walk into primary care offices
every day presenting infection symptoms. And too
many receive antibiotics unnecessarily — despite the
risk of developing resistant bacteria. That’s because as
a physician you often have to judge whether it’s better
to send patients home with prescriptions, just in case,
rather than delay the start of treatment while waiting
for lab results. After all, though most of these infections
are uncomplicated colds caused by viruses, some are
more serious bacterial infections.
Clinical signs can be ambiguous, and testing for
white blood cell counts has so far been largely
limited to Complete Blood Counts (CBCs) via central
laboratories. HemoCue gives you answers within
minutes at the patient’s side.
A HemoCue WBC point-of-care test provides
valuable, immediate information in your
assessments for:
Help with ruling in or ruling out infection
Guidance on bacterial vs. viral infections
• Monitoring infections and other conditions
“In a study of more than 700 children with upper respiratory infections and non-specific febrile
illness, utilization of WBC counts dramatically decreased the amount of antibiotics prescribed.
Approximately half of the children had symptoms that would typically make the physician inclined
to prescribe antibiotics … In this group, 96 percent of the children had a WBC count of less than
15,000/mm3 and thus did not need antibiotics. The remaining four percent, those with a WBC
count higher than 15,000/mm3, needed and were prescribed antibiotics. With this approach,
return visits were infrequent during the two week period that followed and no child with a
significant infection was missed.”
Casey, J.R. et al, Clin Pediatr, 2003; 42:113-119.
“A differential count is helpful in the diagnosis or exclusion of an infection. In some cases, e.g.,
when a patient is suffering from stress, high WBC count can be presented without any infection.
With the HemoCue® WBC DIFF System, we can tell the difference”
Susanne Blohmé, clinical laboratory scientist,
primary care center Bräkne-Hoby, Sweden
Hemoglobin | HbA1c | Glucose | Urine Albumin | WBC / WBC DIFF
HemoCue AB | PO Box 1204 | SE-262 23 Ängelholm | Sweden
Phone: +46 77 570 02 10 | Fax: +46 77 570 02 12 | [email protected] | hemocue.com
HemoCue has been a leader in point-of-care medical diagnostics for over 30 years.
We specialize in giving healthcare providers lab-quality accuracy with results comparable
to that of a clinical lab.
©2013 HemoCue. All Rights Reserved. GPM343INT 140128
Because when it comes
to caring for people,
we refuse to compromise.