Recommendations of the German Working Group on medical laboratory testing (AML) on the introduction and quality assurance of procedures for Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) in hospitals.

The following recommendations were drawn up by the Working Group "Point-of-Care Testing" of the DGKC and DGLM which was set up in 1997. This first document from the Working Group sets out the principles which should be observed when introducing point-of-care testing. These general recommendations are to be followed by further specific recommendations on individual procedures or groups of procedures, e.g. blood glucose, electrolytes in whole blood, blood gases, coagulation, toxicology, quality control and others, which will be drawn up by experts at the suggestion of the Working Group.