Until recently, patients suffering from any type of illness were often asked to undergo blood draws and urine samples in order to help physicians determine the ailment from which they suffered. Unfortunately, these are tests that were often done outside of the office; tests that required days, even weeks in some cases, to yield results. In today's fast-paced society, the tried and true testing methods from the past have become outdated. Now, newer, faster, more efficient procedures are on the horizon, one such being the in-house point of care testing system that many medical facilities are beginning to utilize.

Doctor's offices and hospital rooms are some of the newest locales to adopt the current standard of immediate call to action. This has taken form in the biggest way, perhaps, in the area of medical testing. One of the newest acclaims of the health care system is on-the-spot medical testing procedures that allow for instant attention to the problem (done through blood tests, etc.) and expedited results. This new type of testing routine is known as point of care testing (POCT). While it is conducive to providing anxious individuals with a quicker response, it is still too new to tell how effective it will ultimately be for the doctors and patients who utilize it.

What was once done primarily offsite can now be accomplished in-house with the new POCT system. Rather than requiring patients to have their blood drawn and their medical tests conducted out of the office, POCT allows for these to be completed right at the doctor's office or at the bedside of a hospital patient. As such, it allows for much more convenience and ease on behalf of both physicians and patients alike. In fact, it almost ensures that the medical team will be able to react much more quickly to the results of such tests because they will be received more quickly as well. Included among the tests administered through point of care procedures are screenings for drug abuse, cholesterol, and food pathogens; pregnancy testing, blood glucose testing, infectious disease testing, and rapid coagulation testing; analyses of fecal occult blood, blood gas, and electrolytes; and rapid cardiac markers diagnostics.

The use of compact, transportable, handheld instruments has created a cheaper, easier, faster way to test for many diseases, including diabetes, acute coronary syndrome, and much more. However, the positives of this new testing system should not overshadow the downside to POCT methods. While this may be a new, more cost effective way to quickly address many types of medical maladies, the system is not without its flaws. In fact, when subjected to medical errors caused by point of care testing methods, some individuals could suffer even more.

In 2007, the University of Wisconsin's School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Pathology issued an assessment of point of care testing, particularly highlighting its inherent medical errors. Among the studies biggest findings was the fact that errors in the testing process were not minor enough to go unnoticed. In fact, they were actually major enough to create real problems for the medical field. While many testing errors can be systematically eliminated when utilizing properly designed testing systems, there is no way to guarantee that the system being used is free from any and all flaws. According to the department's findings, basic testing errors are not only symptomatic of point of care testing, they are often exaggerated when administered in a POCT environment. This is believed to be due in large part to two main amplifiers: incoherent regulations and a failure of caregivers and clinicians to appropriately respond to POCT results.

Unlike typical lab tests that are conducted out of the office, the results yielded in point of care tests rely solely on the manufacturers of the system. However, these systems are not always manufactured correctly, and test results can be skewed as a consequence. In addition, clinicians using the testing systems must be able to accurately read the results. Failure to interpret the medical data produced by POCT could lead to catastrophic medical misdiagnoses, personal injuries, and fatalities.

Point of care testing is a fast growing segment of the world market, and it may one day be responsible for an entire reform of the medical field. However, as it stands, POCT is not without its own set of errors. Just as quickly and easily as POCT can yield results for medical practitioners, it can quickly and easily lead to errors that compromise the overall health and safety of patients as well. Therefore, it is wise that medical practitioners and ailing patients alike take heed in the POCT system; at least until it can be proven without a doubt to be free of errors and incapable of causing any type of medical malpractice.