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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.)
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MT PHL Employee Highlight:
Sam Fetzer's journey with the Montana Public Health Lab (MTPHL) began during the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a member of the National Guard, he was instrumental in supporting Montana’s response efforts. He quickly became an invaluable asset to MTPHL by helping streamline our send-out and data entry processes. His dedication and skills led to a permanent position within the Laboratory Services Bureau. Since then, Sam has continued to excel, mastering accessioning procedures for both public health and environmental labs. Outside of the laboratory, he's a proud member of the National Guard, a certified CrossFit trainer, and a devoted family man.
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News and Updates
Financial
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Online Payments
- Online payments now require an account to be created before payment can be made. If you do not want to create an account to pay your invoice online please reach out to our billing office at 406-444-2642 to pay your invoice. Credit/Debit card information will be required over the phone as well as phone number, billing address and an email address to send the receipt to. Remember a small fee is charged for paying with a credit/debit card. If you decide not to pay invoices with a credit/debit card we are still accepting payment by check and that can be mailed to:
- DPHHS – Laboratory
PO Box 4369
1400 Broadway Room B206
Helena, MT 59604-4369
Newborn Screening
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MTPHL to begin testing SCID/SMA in-house in January
- Currently, Severe Combine Immunodeficiency (SCID) and Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) assays are performed at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene as part of Newborn Screening Panel 2. Beginning January 2025, the Montana Public Health Laboratory (MTPHL) will be performing this testing in-house. A specific date will be released in later messaging. In-house SCID and SMA testing will show under a new header on the report in addition to Panel 1 and Panel 2.
Serology
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Blood Lead Testing no Longer Performed at MTPHL
- Beginning December 23, 2024, the Montana Public Health Laboratory will no longer perform the blood lead test in-house. All blood leads received will be sent to South Dakota Public Health Laboratory. The price for testing will remain the same at $25 per test.
IT Corner
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Sign-out of the Lab Portal
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Please remember to sign-out of the lab portal when you are finished in the system. By not signing out of the system it leaves cookies open in your browser. This causes multiple cookies to be open per user, causing extra licenses to be used. We recently almost ran out of licenses.
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Sign-out by going to the top right hand corner, select the arrow next to the user icon, and scroll down to sign-out.
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Lab Portal-Upgrade
- There is a new look coming to the lab portal in the next upgrade. This upgrade is currently scheduled for December 10, 2024. Here is a short video with a sneak peak of what to expect with the latest upgrade.
Molecular
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Influenza B Reporting
- MTPHL is no longer reporting Influenza B genotyping results back to the submitter. The new Influenza B genotyping kits provided by CDC are designated as Research Use Only (RUO), so results are considered for surveillance purposes only and cannot be reported back to the submitter. Results will continue to be reported to our state epidemiologists.
Packaging and Shipping
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Save the Date!!
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The last training of the year will be held virtually on December 11th. Registration information INCLUDING the registration code is available in the training link on our website: https://dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/LaboratoryServices/PackagingAndShipping. Registration, testing, P.A.C.E. credit, and evaluation will be through CDC, so you must register by the December 6th at 11:59 PM MST.
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A course booklet, USB, shipping container, and job aids will be sent to registered participants. Please email Crystal if you plan to register so you can have the materials prior to the class start.
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This training will be on Microsoft Teams, so we will provide a link. Please contact Crystal Fortune, cfortune@mt.gov or 444-0930 for more information.
Preparedness
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Focus on Select Agent Initial Characteristics
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A few key initial growth characteristics (red flags) can cue a laboratorian as to whether they should be suspicious of an isolate as possibly being a select agent.
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Red flag #1: rapidly growing, large Bacillus-like colonies.
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Red flag #2: slowly growing bacteria needing 48-72 hours of incubation prior to small colonies being visible.
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Remember that use of Mayo Clinic’s LID-ON Plate Screening Method for initial culture plate inspection can provide a workspace that has NO lab exposures.
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Click here for a quick reference guide that reviews these red flag growth characteristics and suspicious gram stain morphologies.
Introducing Dear Lab-by
Do you have a burning question that you’ve wanted to ask, but are afraid? Do you have a question that you want answered in writing? Have you ever wondered why your newborn screening samples are unsatisfactory or what happens to those state-required surveillance samples? Now’s your chance to get answers! Ask us anything no matter how big or small.
If you have a question, it’s likely others have wondered the same. Dear Lab-by is a column where you can email your questions and have them answered in the Sentinel Newsletter. Questions will remain completely anonymous, and there will be no identifying information in the responses.
You can email questions to Crystal Fortune, cfortune@mt.gov. They will be given to the appropriate SME to get the best answer. Please use the message line “Lab-by” so we can properly sort the questions.
To provide ongoing valuable information to our readers, we may occasionally draw from past questions received. This will supplement submitted questions and ensure a consistent flow of content for the Dear Lab-by column. Rest assured, all identifying information will be strictly confidential.
This column will begin in January 2025 but start sending your questions any time. Silly questions are welcomed but remember there is no such thing as a dumb question!
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Reminders:
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Lab Portal Information
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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.
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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".
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Courier
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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.
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