Hi All, Been viewing the forum for ages but first time to start a thread. Recently went up on the Provue and occasionally have trouble with the specimen barcode. Some issues we see- phleb id too close to the barcode, barcode too light, barcode crooked, flagged barcode, etc. My question is - how do you go about fixing the label. It makes me nervous to have staff print a new barcode and relabel but not sure how to get past the above issues. We have addressed these things with nursing (do all of the draws) but have had little success. I know many folks have been on instruments for a long time and this can't be a new problem. Thanks, Sheryl

Sheryl,

This happened to us when we started with the PV too. We allow staff to reprint a barcode and apply it to the specimen. We felt it was better to reapply the b/c ourselves, making sure it is the right pt than to do this at the bench and risk making an error with manual bench procedures.

We also have a post-analytical step where the person taking the spec off the PV checks the labels again to make sure it is the correct pt.

Good luck with getting nursing to label correctly, b/c there are so many people collecting samples it is almost impossible to manage from the BB.

I might make you feel a little better if you have them apply the new label so you can still read the patient's name on the original label. Give you something to compare if there is ever an issue.

Sheryl,

I have experienced the lable being off print such that the bar code is too close to one end or the other. I just attach a piece of white lable to increase the amount of blank space at the short end so the bar code reader can distinguish the ends.

We scan the problem specimen barcode manually using PV scanner. If this does not work, we enter the specimen number manually. We do not re label BB specimen.

We do the same as Autumn and it works great for us.

Our BB samples come to us with the typenex armband label only. We then print and apply the barcoded label to the specimen ourselves.