Public Health and Environmental Laboratories

Newborn Blood Spot Screening for Parents

About Newborn Blood Spot Screening
Accessing Your Baby’s Newborn Screening Laboratory Results
Obtaining Your Child’s Sickle Cell Results

About Newborn Blood Spot Screening

After your baby is born, a few drops of blood will be taken from his or her heel, during a
relatively risk-free procedure called a heel stick, and placed on a special filter paper. This
filter paper is commonly referred to as the newborn screening kit or card. There is also a
section for demographics to be filled out on the newborn screening kit. It is crucial that all
demographics are filled out completely by a health care provider including your baby’s
last name, time of birth, time of blood specimen collection, birthweight, if your baby has
received a transfusion or not, mother’s name and address, hospital contact information,
and your baby’s primary health care provider’s contact information. Inaccurate or missing
information within the demographic field could affect the accuracy of screening tests and
results. Subsequently, this affects the timeliness of reporting accurate screening results for
your baby.

Following collection of the blood specimen, the newborn screening kit will be sent to the
New Jersey Department of Health’s Newborn Screening Laboratory located in Ewing, New
Jersey at the New Jersey Public Health and Environmental Laboratories. There, your
baby’s blood sample will be screened for 60 disorders. Timeliness of completion of the
blood spot kit, transit of the kit to the newborn screening lab, and testing is of utmost
importance as these screenings are intended to detect potentially life-threatening
disorders prior to your baby’s onset of symptoms.

After screening tests are completed at the laboratory, results within normal ranges will be
sent to the hospital where your baby was born. However, if screening results are abnormal,
they will be sent to the hospital where your baby was born and the primary care provider
listed within the demographic field of the newborn screening kit.

In the state of New Jersey parents cannot directly access newborn screening results. If you
would like to request your baby’s newborn blood spot screening results, please contact
your baby’s primary care provider.

If you have changed your baby’s primary care provider since original completion of the
newborn screening kit at the hospital, please have your baby’s new primary care provider
submit a records release authorization form which can be found below. Please be sure
that you, as the parent, sign the records release authorization form prior to your baby’s
new primary care provider sending it to the newborn screening laboratory for release of
the newborn screening results report.

Newborn Records Release Authorization Form 

Obtaining Your Child’s Sickle Cell Results for College Athletics
In the state of New Jersey, parents cannot directly access newborn screening results.
Therefore, the New Jersey Newborn Screening Laboratory cannot send your child’s
newborn screening results to you, as the parent, or to your child. If your child is under the
age of 18 and needs his or her sickle cell screening results for college athletics, please
complete and sign the records release authorization form found below, and then fax or
email this as a PDF file to the newborn screening laboratory office for results to be sent to
the college or university requesting them or to your child’s primary care provider. If your
child is 18 years of age or older, he or she will need to complete and sign the records
release authorization form found below, and then fax or email this as a PDF file to the
newborn screening laboratory office for results to be sent to either the college or
university requesting them or to your child’s primary care provider.

Sickle Cell Records Release Authorization Form 

Newborn Screening Laboratory Office
Phone Number: (609) 530-8371
Fax Number: (609) 530-8373
Email: NJNBS.Results@doh.nj.gov