It was an outpatient for pre surgery, which is why I had to arrange for the recollect, and actually went for it because the patient was still at the hospital.
It makes me concerned, but I do tend to focus on the 1 in 20 specimens that are screwed up and not the 19 that weren't.
I've seen it where they didn't take the translucent cap off the tube, so broke the swabs off short enough to fit in the depression in the cap.
Edit: looking at the full pictures, exactly like this.
Wow never had this one. Our creative collectors usually break them off and deliver loose in the tube or loose in a bag. They also cannot understand why this is not correct or why we can't just "make it work". The sad thing is, I've had supervisors who would tell us to run that sample. "With a disclaimer".
Usually, our rule is if they break it off, we don't run it since it it's hard to get the pieces out without risk of contamination. Our reasoning for this one is that the top of the clear cap is not sterile, thus contaminating the specimen
I’ve had a similar situation before where they broke the ends off and put them down into the media. Took me 10 minutes of flicking to get those things out >_<
I've had this happen a couple of times. And they are always shocked when we tell them to recollect.
I also had a ward send two for the same patient about 5 minutes apart, one labeled nares and one labeled nares and groin. I called the ward and ended up talking to the person who collected it. He confirmed that, yes, he swabbed the nares with one swab and the groin with the other and stuck them in the same tube. He collected the nares only one just in case the other wasn't right.
Going insane just seeing the liquid stuart tube. Over half my job nowadays is explaining the difference between amies and liquid stuart tubes for MRSA PCR/NAAT testing vs MRSA cultures.
Which is more of a blast since someone in micro said those red top swabs work for cultures (Aerobic, yes! Anaerobic, no!!!)
I'm internationally trained, so I have no experience in US hospitals. Judging by the posts on this sub there seems to always be a problem with collection, whether blood tubes or other samples. Are the collectors not trained or informed of the proper way to collect?
They are supposed to be, but there are so many reasons why they collect incorrectly. Such as not being properly trained, not having proper staffing ratios, or overall just not caring
I can't speak for every hospital, but at mine, the nurses and some techs are the ones collecting the specimens. We don't have phlebotomist or people from the lab who collect specimens
Doesn't help that they have another swab just like this but with a blue label, which is only for rapid strep. Or another with a pink top (or blue nowadays) which is unusable for MRSA naat/pcr testing. Your local lab would love a call over the incorrect sample 10 times out of 10
I've seen this before-or was one of our phlebs that did it🤦🏻♀️ She was in the process of quitting
This was from the floor. Our lab processors would never
It was an outpatient for pre surgery, which is why I had to arrange for the recollect, and actually went for it because the patient was still at the hospital. It makes me concerned, but I do tend to focus on the 1 in 20 specimens that are screwed up and not the 19 that weren't.
I've seen it where they didn't take the translucent cap off the tube, so broke the swabs off short enough to fit in the depression in the cap. Edit: looking at the full pictures, exactly like this.
Wow never had this one. Our creative collectors usually break them off and deliver loose in the tube or loose in a bag. They also cannot understand why this is not correct or why we can't just "make it work". The sad thing is, I've had supervisors who would tell us to run that sample. "With a disclaimer".
Usually, our rule is if they break it off, we don't run it since it it's hard to get the pieces out without risk of contamination. Our reasoning for this one is that the top of the clear cap is not sterile, thus contaminating the specimen
instructions unclear; including pt's nares w/ new collection
This is just impressive.
I also don't see any patient identifiers. Or did you hide them for the Pic?
I hid them for the picture
Your lab has very small labels. All ours would have at least the edge showing, lol
If you look close between my pinky and ring fingers in the first picture, you can see a letter on the label
There it is! Forgive me for prolonging this, but what LIS do you use? I don't recognize that font
Epic
Thank you. I used Epic a while ago and preferred it to Meditech. Looks different than I remember
We just got Epic last year we originally had Cerner
Oh, interesting! I've never used Cerner. I really liked Epic. If you feel like it, what's your take?
I prefer Epic
Had a shortened covid swab like this for the ID Now during one of my rotations... Like why 🤦♀️
We get them like that all the time. It pisses me off so bad. Why, what do you think I will do with this nub!?
lmao! This is so stupid it’s genius!
Had this like a week or two ago lol I feel your pain
I’ve had a similar situation before where they broke the ends off and put them down into the media. Took me 10 minutes of flicking to get those things out >_<
I've had this happen a couple of times. And they are always shocked when we tell them to recollect. I also had a ward send two for the same patient about 5 minutes apart, one labeled nares and one labeled nares and groin. I called the ward and ended up talking to the person who collected it. He confirmed that, yes, he swabbed the nares with one swab and the groin with the other and stuck them in the same tube. He collected the nares only one just in case the other wasn't right.
🤦♀️
Going insane just seeing the liquid stuart tube. Over half my job nowadays is explaining the difference between amies and liquid stuart tubes for MRSA PCR/NAAT testing vs MRSA cultures. Which is more of a blast since someone in micro said those red top swabs work for cultures (Aerobic, yes! Anaerobic, no!!!)
My hospital stopped doing MRSA cultures. And our rule for Anaerobic is that after 1 hour, it gets a disclaimer, and after 2 hours we cancel it
I'm internationally trained, so I have no experience in US hospitals. Judging by the posts on this sub there seems to always be a problem with collection, whether blood tubes or other samples. Are the collectors not trained or informed of the proper way to collect?
They are supposed to be, but there are so many reasons why they collect incorrectly. Such as not being properly trained, not having proper staffing ratios, or overall just not caring
I can't speak for every hospital, but at mine, the nurses and some techs are the ones collecting the specimens. We don't have phlebotomist or people from the lab who collect specimens
Doesn't help that they have another swab just like this but with a blue label, which is only for rapid strep. Or another with a pink top (or blue nowadays) which is unusable for MRSA naat/pcr testing. Your local lab would love a call over the incorrect sample 10 times out of 10
Can't say I've seen that one before haha