1. California Department of Public Health (CDPH)
Newborn Screening Program(NBS) Online Specimen Tracking (OST)

2. Online Specimen Tracking
History of the Online Specimen Tracking (OST)
The purpose of Newborn Screening (NBS) is to detect and treat genetic and congenital diseases as soon as possible. Testing is more sophisticated and takes longer to complete and produce the NBS result mailer. It is no longer legal to rely on the result mailer as confirmation a NBS was completed. OST was developed to prove that a Specimen was collected for each baby within 2-5 days of being drawn.

3. Online Specimen Tracking
All birthing hospitals were provided training and access to OST as of March 2013.
Title 17 - CA Code of Regulations requires every birth facility use the CDPH Screening Information System (SIS) to verify every NBS has been received by the state lab and report any NBS as missing if it cannot be verified by the 7th day of life.

4. Online Specimen Tracking
Functions of Online Specimen Tracking
Verification that all your Newborn Specimens were received at the State lab within 2-5 days after collection.
Guaranteeing all birth and/or transfer babies have received the mandated testing.
Ability to track Specimen transport time.
Online ability to report a missing Specimen by the 7th day of life.
Timeliness of verification and reporting is essential to the health of all Newborns.

5. Online Specimen Tracking
Specimens reported as missing will be researched by the Program.
This confirms that a Specimen was collected or not. Errors can occur like the Specimen is assigned to the wrong hospital.
If a Specimen was not collected, the NBS Area Service Center (ASC) staff will contact the Pediatrician and family for further testing.

6. Online Specimen Tracking
Online ability to report a Specimen does not belong to your facility.
Prevents HIPAA violations.
Prevents a facility from being billed for Specimens they did not collect.
Online ability to request a duplicate NBS Result Mailer.

7. Online Specimen Tracking
Online Specimen Tracking Protocol
Reconcile the Admission or Census Report against the Received Specimen List in OST on a daily basis.
Multiple staff who have access and are trained in OST.
Collaboration between Hospital Management and staff in the HIM, Lab, Nursery, and NICU. This ensures continual tracking of Specimens so no baby will miss being tested.
Hospital Management updates the State Program and their NBS ASC of any staffing changes pertaining to the tracking of Newborn Specimens.

8. Online Specimen Tracking
For SIS database/Online Specimen Tracking access, training, questions, assistance, and staff updates please contact Melinda Szalay at (510)
or at
Thank you~
Because Every Baby Deserves a Healthy Start