Once the required circles on the filter card have been completely saturated with blood and the care of the infant is complete, all necessary patient demographic information on the card must be completed.
Every item included in the demographic section must be completed accurately. The age of the infant is important and is often recorded in hours and/or days. Contact information for the parent or guardian, as well as the primary caregiver, is also important so that this information can be used by public health officials to initiate and track the follow-up treatment for the patient.
When completing the demographic section of the card, it is advisable to use a ballpoint pen. Soft or felt tip pens can be absorbed by the filter paper and can possibly affect the test results.
Cards should be allowed to air dry completely (about 3 hours). Never stack cards in such a way that will allow the blood drops of the cards to come in contact with each other. This could result in the transfer of one patient's blood to another patient's card. Many facilities have special racks in which to place cards while drying to avoid the contamination of specimens.
After the cards are dry, they should be delivered no later than 24 hours after collection to the state testing facility.
