Montana Laboratory Sentinel

Updates from the MT Laboratory Services Bureau
Phone: 800-821-7284 Fax: 406-444-1802
Lab Website

Lab Manual 

(Please reference this for testing or submission questions.)

September, 2024

MT PHL Employee Highlight: Walter Walsh has dedicated over three decades to the Montana Laboratory Services Bureau, contributing his expertise to the water lab, newborn screening, and serology sections. His passion lies in newborn screening. When not at work, Walter enjoys hiking adventures, immersing himself in books, and writing. He's penned 70 stories about his Butte upbringing and dreams of sharing them with the world. Road trips, particularly those that lead him back to his hometown, are another passion of his.

News and Updates 

Specimen Transport

• URGENT: Specimen Transport Temperatures

  • Following national regulatory requirements, the Montana Public Health Laboratory is implementing a more stringent process for verifying specimen integrity. To help ensure that specimen integrity is not compromised during transport, we will be recording temperatures inside coolers upon receipt. If a specimen(s) is not shipped appropriately and/or a temperature is found to be out of range upon receipt, the specimen(s) will be rejected.

  • You can place an order online if you need extra transport supplies (coolers, cold packs, specimen transport bags) to help comply with this request.

  • Acceptable transport temperatures for specimens can be found in the Public Health Laboratory Services manual. Montana Public Health Laboratory Services Manual (mt.gov).

  • Temperature Ranges:
    • Room temperature/Ambient: 15-25°C
    • Refrigerated: 2-8°C
    • Frozen: ≤-20°C

IT Corner

• Newborn Screening Mistakes

  • If you make a mistake entering an order for a newborn screening, please DO NOT CANCEL the order. Instead, open a ticket and let us know what needs to be done to correct the order. The reason for this is the card number you enter becomes the order number and cannot be re-used if canceled. 

• Coming Soon!!!

  • We have been working on a process for facilities to enter providers without having to open a ticket or edit tickets. With this process the providers full name and NPI number will be required and "..laboratory" will no longer be available in the provider list. When this process is changed we will have up to date procedures and a quick guide available for facilities. 

Microbiology

• Mycology/Parasitology going live in new LIS

  • The second microbiology section is going live in the new LIS as of Monday, 9/9. This includes samples received Saturday, 9/7. Facilities shouldn’t notice much difference for the parasitology tests. Fungal cultures will have the new microbiology report format. In the old LIS, each identified organism had it’s own culture and identification test headers on the report; however, in the new LIS all the isolates can be worked up on the same culture. So, the reports will be much more condensed. Click here to view sample preliminary and final fungal culture reports.

Newborn

• X-ALD Testing to begin in September 2024

  • Following the Montana’s Newborn Screening Advisory Committee recommendation, the Montana Public Health Laboratory (MTPHL) will be adding X-Linked Adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) to the Montana newborn screening panel. The testing will be performed at Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene beginning on September 3, 2024. X-ALD will be reported as Screen Negative, Screen Positive, or Inconclusive. This addition will increase the Newborn Screening test to $150.50.

    • To see a sample report that includes X-ALD, please click here.
    • For more information about X-ALD, please click here.
    • If you have additional questions, please contact Jeanne Lee at 406-444-3040 or Nikki Goosen 406-444-5375.

• NBS Advisory Committee

  • The Montana Newborn Screening Advisory Committee is seeking new members. The composition of the committee is set forth under section 50-19-205, MCA, and consists of 12 members appointed by the Director of the Department of Public Health and Human Services and comprises various qualifications. We are currently seeking members to begin in the Fall of 2024. Please click here to read more.

Preparedness

• Focus on Burkholderia Mallei Identification

  • Click here for colonial growth and gram stain morphology comparison.

  • Shared key characteristics: catalase positive and indole negative. Differential key characteristics: mallei is oxidase variable, non-motile, and does not grow at 42⁰C. B. pseudomallei is oxidase positive, motile, and grows at 42⁰C.

  • Burkholderia mallei is closely related to pseudomallei, sharing 99% in conserved genes. As such, the two organisms can be misidentified as each other as well as with closely related Pseudomonas spp.

  • Consider manipulating ALL slow growing organisms in a BSL-2 hood to prevent possible laboratory acquired infections. This is especially true for sterile site infections.

Reminders:

• Lab Portal Information

  • All of our lab portal procedures and access paperwork can be found on our website. Here is the link to the direct page with all of our forms and procedures: https://dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/LaboratoryServices/onlineorderingandresults.

  • There is also a link in our lab portal that will take you directly to this page. This link can be found under quick links. "MT PHL Lab Portal Procedures and Forms". 

• Courier 

  • Please click here for our full courier schedule.

• Previous Laboratory Sentinels 

  • All previous Laboratory Sentinels can be found on our website on the column on the left hand side by selecting "Public Health Laboratory Newsletter". Here is a link to all our previous Laboratory Sentinels.