10 Tips from your project manager to help make sure your projects run smoothly
1) Call your PM prior to sending in rush work. This allows the project manager to check lab availability and give the lab a heads up that your samples are coming in. The lab technicians plan out their batches for the day early in the morning. If they know your rush samples are arriving that day, they can leave space in their batches for your samples. Also, if the PM doesn’t think the lab will be able to meet the requested turn around time, they can call the other Pace labs and determine if another lab can meet your rush request. We would then need to ship the samples directly to that lab.
2) If you have a project that needs specific compound lists or reporting limits, be sure to send those lists to your PM. Each state and regulatory program can require different detection limits, and we want to make sure that you get the detection limits and compound lists that you need.
3) Make sure you indicate what state the samples are coming from and what regulatory program they pertain to on the Chain of Custody. Each state and regulatory program can require different certifications. Be sure to let your PM know where the samples are coming from so that the PM can make sure your samples are run with the appropriate certifications.
4) Make use of all the tools that Pace offers to ensure that you get the results you need. Our computer system automatically emails clients a sample acceptance form when your samples are received at the laboratory. It lists all your samples and the analyses that are scheduled for those samples. Be sure to look this over and check for any errors with your project. If you notice any potential problems or have any questions, please contact your project manager ASAP. Paceport is our free online data management tool, which allows clients to set up bottle orders, check on results, generate EDDs (complete with regulatory action limits) and organize your projects. If you are not already set up for Paceport, contact your PM to make sure that you have access to this time-saving tool.
5) If you are shipping samples to the laboratory to arrive on a Saturday, be sure to mark the “Saturday Delivery” box on your Fedex/UPS labels. Otherwise, the samples won’t be delivered to the lab until Monday, and the coolers could arrive outside the required temperature range of 0-6 degrees Celsius if the ice melts.
6) Make sure you are familiar with the hold times for all the analyses you are running on your project. Some hold times are as short as 24 hrs and many tests have hold times that expire within a week. It is a good idea to always ship samples within a day or two of collecting the samples to ensure that hold times are met.
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7) We appreciate your feedback! Please fill out one of the surveys on www.pacelabs.com. We are always looking for ways to improve our services. Feedback from our customers provides us with information as to how we can better meet your needs in the future.
8) If you have extra empty bottles left over from your project, please keep them. Once containers leave our premises, we can no longer guarantee that they are certified clean. We cannot re-use any bottle ware that is returned to the lab (with a few exclusions – summa canisters for example, since we clean them when they are returned to the lab). Most empty containers that are returned to the lab unused have to be thrown away, so please try to estimate a fairly accurate number of containers that you will need for your project to avoid a large number of leftover containers.
9) Please fill out the Chain of Custody as completely as possible. The chain of custody is a legal document. If there are blanks that are not filled in such as requested analyses, collection dates and times, etc., your project manager will contact you to fill in those blanks.
10) Ask questions. If there is ever anything that you are unsure about – (what containers to use for a sample, if the lab can run a certain analysis, how soon your results should be done, etc.) – please contact your project manager. They are working to make sure that you get everything you need for your projects.
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to give them a call or send them an email.
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