One of my biggest pet peeve in lab is mislabeling specimens. It is basic, elementary and requires a drop of common sense. I’m sure anyone who has worked in lab can relate. It does happens every now and then because of the cliche reason of being “human”. At times, it is a case of the worst mislabeling ever!
We just transition to our new hospital-wide system. How it works is that label printers are placed in the ER so when a urine specimen is collected, they have to print the label on their end so the specimen can be delivered to the lab properly labeled.
One time we are expecting a urine sample from an ER patient. A few minutes later, we finally received the specimen. But lo and behold, there are three different labels on the specimen, all with different names, and not one is the name of the actual patient.
I’m beginning to wonder if they think those labels mean something else. Just to make the cup look pretty perhaps? This is just wrong in so many levels. Specimen was so badly mislabeled, it should be a crime! Specimen REJECTED.
Submitted by:
Ronald Smith
Medical Technologist
Alabama, USA
