Critical values are intended to represent life-threatening results. According to The Joint Commission’s guidelines, these results must be verbally reported by the laboratory to the ordering physician. One of the critical values used at UTMB is a PTT greater than 70 seconds. This value is easily achieved with therapeutic concentrations of heparin, which results in many unnecessary calls. To help reduce the call volume, the Medical Staff Executive Committee has voted to change the PTT critical value at UTMB from greater than 70 seconds to greater than 100 seconds. Please contact Dr. Michael Laposata, Chair, Department of Pathology, with any questions or concerns.

Regards,

Gulshan Sharma, MD, MPH, FCCP
Vice President, Chief Medical and Clinical Innovation Officer, UTMB Health System