Mislabeling Hinders Quality

As laboratorians, we are well aware of many horror medical and legal stories regarding mislabeling lab specimens. The American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM), the College of American Pathologists (CAP), The Joint Commission and other healthcare oversight entities have addressed and provided several solutions (e.g., National Patient Safety Goals) to remedy the problem. Specimen mislabeling is generally thought to occur in cases where the identity label of the donor is being taped to another donor's specimen container. Mislabeling also occurs in cases when the donors' names are mixed up on blood transfusions or drug urinalysis screenings. Other lab specimen mislabels also occur, such as when the wrong word is affixed to the wrong type of specimen (e.g., blood types).  

Read more: 
Mislabeling Hinders Quality

Source:  ADVANCE for Administrators of the Laboratory




Art and Science of Laboratory Medicine

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LaboratoryEQAS

Twitter: LaboratoryEQAS