All Other Reasons

Unsatisfactory specimens due to missing demographics

The newborn screening requisition portion of the newborn screening card must be completed to ensure proper specimen labeling for positive identification of the patient.

All fields on the newborn screening card should be filled in as completely as possible. Failure to provide all information on the card may result in delays in retrieving an infant who screens positive or make it difficult to interpret results.

NSO occasionally receives samples that contain the demographic information of two different infants. In these cases NSO requires a repeat newborn screening sample on both infants, to ensure that both infants have had a satisfactory newborn screen.

Disease specific unsatisfactory samples

NSO endeavors to test every blood sample we receive. Occasionally instrument failures occur that require samples to be re-tested. When there is an insufficient quantity of blood to re-test, that sample may be unsatisfactory for testing for a specific disease or diseases. In this case only partial results are available, and a repeat specimen is required.