1. Increasing the number of point of care glucose and electrolyte testing devices which use a
fingerstick sample to perform test instead of drawing a whole tube of blood to send to the lab.
2. Doing a thorough search in our LIS to see if blood can be used from an earlier draw whenever there is an add-on test requested to prevent patient from being drawn again.
3. The Clinical Lab coordinated an intradisciplinary committee to reduce mislabeled and unlabeled specimens to prevent patient redraws . The lab audits and sends out notification for corrective action in cases of non-compliance.
4. Designing our LIS system to identify minimum volumes of blood to be drawn for all tests and
print out the appropriate number of labels to match the different types of blood tubes to be drawn.
5. Purchasing testing equipment in the nursery laboratory which uses a lesser volume of blood than previous equipment.
6. Participating in Nursery quality control meetings weekly which address methods of improvement for reducing the volume of blood collection.
7. Participating in the IRB to have a voice in encouraging research studies to be conservative in blood collection.
8. Communicating with nurse managers and staff education to improve blood draw techniques to minimize hemolyzed, clotted and unsatisfactory specimens to prevent redraws.
9. Assuring the competence and accuracy of phlebotomists by prompt communications when
specimen collection problems occur and providing solutions and corrective action when needed.
10. Saving blood specimens in the proper environment for the maximum usage time span to increaseopportunities for not having to redraw a specimen.
TROUBLESHOOTING HINTS FOR BLOOD COLLECTION
If a blood sample is not attainable:
- Reposition the needle.
- Ensure that the collection tube is completely pushed onto the back of the needle in the hub.
- Use another tube as vacuum may have been lost.
- Loosen the tourniquet.
- Probing is not recommended. In most cases, another puncture in a site below the first site is advised.
- A patient should never be stuck more than twice unsuccessfully by a phlebotomist.
The Supervisor should be called to assess the patient.