One Touch Ultra Mini Test Strips: New Package Failed Calibration Now What?

Ok so we opened a new box/container of test strips. We attempted a calibration using the control solution and 5 strips in a row failed the calibration.

Neither the test strips nor the control solution have expired.

We have other test strips in other containers that passed the calibration so we are ok there, but what do we do with this container of strips? 50 test strips is 50 test strips.

Do we try and get our money back from Expressscripts or do we get our money back from the manufacturer of the strips?

 

I've actually never had that happen but since the expiration date is good I would go to one touch first.

 

You can call onetouch since you are very unlikely to get anyone at express scripts who can actually help you. You should tell them that a test with the control solution was out of range. The onetouch meters all have the same code so there is no calibrating going on; thus, they are not going to know what you mean if you say it "failed calibration."

 

thanks guys.

 

Ok so here was the final outcome.

Apparently control solution has to be thrown away 3 months after it has been opened. The control solution we were using was opened about 5 months ago. When we used a new bottle of control solution 3 test strips were within the range on the container we were testing. There is, in tiny print, a warning on the control solution bottle that says stop using after three months.

So now we have a date on our control solution bottle.

details details......

 

When you say that you are "calibrating" strips do you mean that you are just checking their accuracy?

I have to admit that we've only used control solution once or twice in over a decade, but you are right, it has a lousy once opened shelf life.

 

Yes. I was checking the accuracy of the strips with the control solution. Is this one of the things, like changing the lancet after each use, that falls by the wayside after a while? Apparently the control solution is only good for 3 months.

 

We too never use the solution. If I feel it's off, I just test myself

 

I have always thought that the 'range' on the test control solution is too wide to actually prove anything..

 

Pretty much :redface:

 

If you want to keep using the control solution, sometimes One Touch will send you some free...sometimes the pharmacy has or can order it...and it's on Amazon.

I can't remember the last time we used it. And shhhhhhh the lancet gets changed when he's home on breaks...if I remember. And then i have to warn him it's sharp again.

 

We actually have a prescription for the control solution, and we had a fresh bottle on hand. I just wonder though..... what a racket! I mean they provide this relatively large bottle (think the size of a bottle of Visine) of which you only need a couple of drops a month, then they tell you its no good in 3 months!

 

I agree. They should put a little foil wrapper with a drop or two in with each container of strips if they really want you to use it. The CDE's in the hospital basically said that no one uses it and to just test yourself (non T1) if you think the bottle is off.

We had some originally, but I've didn't use it in the beginning because we had no back supply of strips and we guarded each one with a vengeance. I couldn't imagine "wasting" one on control solution when we wasted enough on our own with errors. Now, I don't own any solution and haven't thought about it until you posted.