hand labeled tubes

[pbaker]

For those of you who still hand label blood bank specimen tubes, do you allow corrections of name and/or medical record number on the tube? For example, if the phlebotomist realizes at the bedside that he/she has an extra number or letter, would they be allowed to draw a line and write the correction?

[Eagle Eye]

We use typenex band and do not allow any write over or write over to make correction. Reason: If we allowed to correct mistakes at bed side, we do not know if the correction was done before applying the band. Typenex band comes with specimen label on which when you write, carbon copy of the information goes on the band.

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

We accept them IF the correction is signed and dated, AND the sample is irreplacable (e.g. it is from a neonate or a patient like that, where sticking them again would be cruel).

[BANKTECH]

We do NOT allow correction of the patient identifying information. If a date or time is missing, we will allow this information to be added.

[tbostock]

We no longer handlabel tubes, but when we did we allowed no change to any identifier of the patient (name, MR#, DOB), but would allow changes for date, time, and initials. Many years ago we were cited by an AABB inspector for allowing changes to identifiers; her interpretation was if someone made changes, they were doing it "after the fact" and were no longer at the bedside in the presence of the patient, which is what the regulation states. She was OK with changes to date, time, or initials, because they identified the "draw" but not the "patient". Interesting take on it, but we went with it.