Dear all, The National Blood Service demands that specimens for Blood Transfusion are hand labelled and signed by the person taking the blood. Specimens bearing pre-printed labels will not, under any circumstances, be accepted. The reasons for this are, as I understand it, to make the person who has taken the blood think about the identity of the patient who they have just bled and avoid making a gross error of identification. Evidence shows that there is a high risk of gross mis-identification of patients (i.e. labelling Jones' specimens with Bloggs' labels) when pre-printed ("Addressograph") labels are used, cf. the story on the mailbase of the specimen labelled as p1 of 2!. (I can tell a similar story. Called to the lab. reception area one night by the duty BMS to sort out a specimen labelling anomaly, a Paediatric SHO turned up with a sheet of pre-printed labels. They were, of course, for a completely different patient than the one in question! QED). Pre-labelling (either hand written or by use of pre-printed labels) of blood tubes is also "outlawed" as a dangerous practice, although it undoubtedly happens, particularly when staff other than trained phlebotomists take blood specimens. Apart from the problems that pre-printed labels cause with centrifugation, analyser transport chains and obscuring the contents (quantity and quality thereof), there is a more worrying argument put forward by people who wish to justify the "two tier" approach of hand written BT sample labels, and acceptance of pre printed labels on other specimens for Biochemistry and Haematology. This is something along the lines of "you can kill someone if the wrong blood is transfused, but it's not so serious if the wrong Haematology etc. results are obtained". I would beg to differ in the extreme. I am not disputing that fatal or at least serious damage can be caused to a patient by errors made in Transfusion samples, but equally, great harm can be caused to patients by acting on results from the wrong patient, or indeed, not acting. I would question whether any of us could defend a system that embodied such double standards. Little work has been done to quantify the number of specimens accepted by laboratories that are either from the wrong patient or are in some other way mislabelled. We reject approximately 2% of specimens because of specimen labelling and / or patient identification errors. But from the work that has been done, the proportion is probably far higher than many of us would like to believe. Of course we live in the real world. There ARE problems with hand labelling of specimens. Legibility, time, small labels (especially on paediatric specimen tubes) etc. But why is there never time to do the job properly, when time can always be found to do it again? Our Trust has instituted a policy that requires hand labelling of all specimens, with a minimum of family name, forename, dob and hospital number. Specimens with pre-printed labels will not be accepted. In making this change, we have had to accept that the number of MINOR errors (e.g. surname spelled with one letter incorrect) has increased, but this is the price that we have had to pay for avoiding GROSS mis-identification errors. We have also had to compromise with our Paediatricians regarding the use of labels (although when our phlebotomists take specimens from children, they seem to have no difficulty in hand writing the labels......) But, we are a relatively small specialised Hospital, with no A and E, and little or no GP work, and thus it has been "easier". (a relative term, I can assure you. Our specimen reception staff take considerable abuse from the members of staff who have made errors). Trying to institute a policy such as ours in a busy teaching or district general hospital with an A and E and large GP population could be a nightmare. And there is still the problem of identifying out patients. Many clinicians can tell stories of calling for Mr. Brown to come forward, only to discover later that it was Mr. Smith who they were dealing with, Mr. Smith either not understanding / hearing properly, or just wishing to jump the queue to take what he believes is his rightful place. (I can assure you, this has happened). I am told by a Consultant Haematologist colleague that when he explains why he is questioning his patients about their identity, despite having known them for some time, they are very happy that they are being identified correctly. I would respectfully suggest that those laboratories accepting specimens having pre-printed labels are condoning an unsafe and dangerous practice. The solution to all this is a system for correct patient identification, (are there any DOH guidelines / rules?), proper systems of staff training and awareness, and, ultimately, some sort of electronic system for patient identification and specimen labelling at the bedside. See Lyn Sharman's wake up article in the ACB Newsheet November 1999, David Guthrie's article in the Bulletin of the RCPath. page 19, July 2003, and just in, NEJM, June 2003, vol. 348 no. 25 p 2526 and p 2570. Best wishes, Chris Chris Royle Laboratory Manager, Clinical Biochemistry and Haematology Departments, Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, Royal Brompton Hospital, Sydney Street, LONDON SW3 6NP phone: + 44 (0)20 7351 8413 fax: + 44 (0)20 7351 8416 e mail [log in to unmask] Privileged/Confidential Information and/or Copyright Material may be contained in this e-mail. 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