Is your handy Glucometer showing incorrect results?

Its almost been 2 months with my new Accu-chek Active Glucometer, which I have gifted my mom. Hearing all good about this meter I finally decided to go for this as it is said that it gives quite accurate results.

Two days back I went for the standard Blood Glucose tests (Fasting Sugar & Post-Prandial - 2 hours after heavy meal) for my mom. Simultaneously I also got the tests done in a Pathology lab to confirm that the readings that I achieved using both were quite close. When the lab reports were out in the evening, I was very disappointed as there was a huge difference between the Accu-chek Active & the Lab Blood Sugar values. Fasting Sugar - 88 mg/dL (Lab), 152 mg/dL (Accu-chek) & Post-prandial Sugar - 108 mg/dL (Lab), 176 mg/dL. Both the readings varied by almost 70 mg/dL.

To clear my dilemma I then called up the Customer Care at Accu-chek & scheduled an appointment with their executive. After the executive arrived at my place today, I explained to him that both the tests were taken under exact similar conditions & within 15-20 mins time gap. The executive then verified the instrument with the 2 Standard Control Solutions that he was carrying & confirmed that the instrument was perfectly alright. Some of the important things that he told to keep a note is listed below -

1. The Blood Glucose level of Diabetic patients vary quite fast & might change within a matter of few minutes.
2. While puncturing the skin do ensure that Blood comes out easily without applying much pressure. You might attain incorrect readings if you press the skin too much to apply the drop of Blood on the Accu-chek system. To be on the safer side he suggested me to keep the penitration depth to 4 on the Accu-chek Sofclix Lancing device (device used for pricking).
   
3. The Lab tests are conducted almost 2-3 hrs after the patient gives the Blood sample. Since Blood Glucose tests are generally done using Photo-metric meters, the results thus obtained might vary significantly.
4. To cross-check that your Glucometer is giving correct readings, do the tests at the same time while you give your Blood sample to the Lab.
5. Cross-check your Lab reports with other Labs also.
   

Among all the things he discussed, I found the above 4 points logically correct. Among them I found that I was using 1.5 penetration depth setting for my mom using the Softclix Lancing device. I was also pressing hard to get a drop of Blood & this might have caused more concentrated Blood to have oozed out, thus showing higher Blood Glucose values.

I have found many people saying that these Glucometers are a shere waste of money. I just shared this incident with other people using similar self-testing Blood Glucometers facing similar problems, so that they don't arrive at a conclusion that these meters are a waste, without making proper investigation about the measurement procedure. Please use the correct method for taking the reading, else contact the Customer Care to know more before drawing any conclusion.