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Dear colleagues,
Within the next few months we hope to go live with a bedside bar code scanning, patient identification and specimen labelling system. Information printed on the specimen label will come bar coded patient wristbands. The small printers attached to the scanner / PDAs used at the bedside have a range of label sizes that can be accomodated on the usual adult blood collection tubes.
The difficulty we are facing is that of using these labels in conjunction with the small paediatric blood collection tubes (ca. 1 - 2 ml) on which the labels completely obscure the volume and appearance of the contents, and in some cases wrap around to obsure the printed patient details on said label. Leaving a projecting label "stub" to avoid the latter interferes with automated analyser transport systems.
My question is, does anyone know of a UK supplier of tubes that are of conventional adult size having an internal volume of only 1 - 2 ml?
We are aware of the BD range of paediatric collection tube, but the volume of these (ca. 2.5 ml) is still too large.
The old trick of suspending a paediatric tube within an adult tube will not work, as the bar coded lab number will be produced at the bedside and incorporated on the specimen label and the two components are not permanently linked. We need an adult sized paediatric blood collection tube for this to work properly.
Any ideas people?
Thanks,
Chris Royle
Service 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
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