WE have received legal advice from the Trust's solicitors, in respect of our
CNST application (TRust indemnity insurance) And have been told in no
uncertain terms that we are not allowed to analyse Any unlabelled sample and
that samples must always be taken again. WE do very occasionally bend the
rules but because of the negligence insurance rules we now insist on fresh
samples in 99.99% of cases.
TIM
----- Original Message -----
From: Dr J. Falconer Smith <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 22 March 1999 09:31
Subject: unlabelled specimens (again)
>
> Roy Fisher raises this problem again
> <<<......Our local problem is that we are setting up a joint reception for
=
> clinical chemistry and haematology in 4-6 weeks time. We have quite =
> different policies on how we handle unlabelled samples. Clinical =
> chemistry will not analyse these samples if received in a bag attached =
> to a labelled form except in extreme circumstances. We always contact =
> the doctor promptly and ask for another sample, then issue a report that =
> this was an unlabelled sample and was not analysed. This policy has been =
> notified to all doctors in our Trust for the past 2 years without any =
> adverse comment.=20.........>>>>
>
>
> IMHO
> This is a Risk Management issue and you may find it helpful to
> raise the problem of unlabelled specimens within your trust
> in that context. In general you will find trust directors will support
> a safe (and thus severe) policy.
>
> We take a fairly draconian line locally that as a general rule all
unlabelled
> specimens will be discarded unanalysed. In the case of paediatric
specimens
> in a separate bag with a form we do invite the doctor to come over and
complete
> the
> details and then report the sample as " specimen received unlabelled in
> laboratory".
> This policy has Trust Board support.
>
> Sadly my impression is that the more lax the laboratory policy is the more
> problems it
> creates and the more unlabelled specimens it has to deal with. Perhaps a
case
> of being too
> "helpful"? Possibly junior doctors and others need to learn that filling
in
> patient details is
> yes tedious and boring but very very important.
>
> I suspect this problem could be better addressd during staff induction.
> certainly we very
> rarely if ever have problems with specimens taken by trained
phlebotomists.
>
>
> James Falconer Smith
>
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