CAP TODAY Pathology/Laboratory Medicine/Laboratory Management
Dr. Ramsey
Specimen relabeling continues to be a problem, with about 25 percent of respondents to both Q‑Probes studies allowing it. “Specimen relabeling is not a desirable practice,” Dr. Lindholm says tersely. The study recommends that transfusion services conduct a risk-benefit analysis of permitting specimen relabeling.
It’s small comfort that the number of participants who’ve noted at least one annual occurrence of incorrect patient registration owing to the use by the registering patient of another person’s identifying information has declined, from 15.5 percent to eight percent. “It’s less than it was reported in 2007, but the difference is probably not statistically significant,” Dr. Lindholm says.
What Dr. Ramsey would like laboratories to know: “Mislabeled specimens are still an important issue. There are some things laboratories can do, but it’s also important to work with our clinical partners in the hospital. This is something that all transfusion services should be examining.”
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Anne Ford is a writer in Evanston, Ill.