Cytology screening

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The Mayor shall adopt rules pursuant to § 44-213 that:

(1) Limit the number of slides a cytotechnologist may examine to no more than 100 in a 24-hour period, irrespective of the site or clinical laboratory;

(2) Prohibit cytotechnologists from examining slides at any building not owned or used by a licensed clinical laboratory;

(3) Require clinical laboratories to rescreen no less than 10% of all negative pap smears, and require that pap smear rescreening be performed by a supervisory level cytotechnologist;

(4) Require clinical laboratories rescreen all negative noncervical smears, and require that noncervical smear rescreening be performed by a supervisory level pathologist;

(5) Require clinical laboratories to reject improperly prepared smear specimens, make appropriate comments regarding the quality of the specimen, and maintain records on improperly prepared specimens for 5 years subject to review by the Mayor;

(6) Require clinical laboratories to maintain and store for 5 years from the date of examination any smear slide that was examined for disease or disease agents; and

(7) Require all smear specimen reports to be retained for at least 10 years.

(Mar. 16, 1989, D.C. Law 7-182, § 11, 35 DCR 7718; Oct. 20, 2005, D.C. Law 16-33, § 5012(i), 52 DCR 7503.)

Prior Codifications

1981 Ed., § 32-1510.

Effect of Amendments

D.C. Law 16-33, rewrote par. (1), which had read as follows: “(1) Limit the number of slides a cytotechnologist may examine per day;”

Emergency Legislation

For temporary (90 day) amendment of section, see § 5012(i) of Fiscal Year 2006 Budget Support Emergency Act of 2005 (D.C. Act 16-168, July 26, 2005, 52 DCR 7667).


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