Outline the stages of specimen reception and initial processing, Essay

Outline the stages of specimen reception and initial processing, highlighting particular safety issues - Essay Example Once the primary specimen is received in the laboratory, a quick assessment is carried out regarding any clinical risk. Such risks include damage, leakage, missing request form, inadequate labeling, wrong sample sent for requested test or the clinical information does not match the blood sample. However, if a risk has been flagged, it will fall under the Clinical Risk Management guidelines. If there is no clinical risk to be dealt with, the specimen will proceed to the next stage. The sample and the request form have to show the patient demographics. Patient demographics refers to the information that identifies the patient and provides other data that is important to the clinician in coming up with a diagnosis. Demographics consists of the patient’s name, hospital number, and date of birth. Missing demographic data makes the specimen a clinical risk, and a request for a new sample is sent to the requestor. Other instances where the sample can be classified as inadequately labeled include those samples that are not accompanied by supporting paperwork, and those that are labeled differently from the request form in such cases, a request for a new sample is sent to the requestor If the details match the sample, the specimen will be taken for further assessment in the laboratory. Some exceptions can be made in certain situations, especially if there is a need to protect the identity of the one from whom the sample has been obtained. An example of such a s ituation is in the case of an unrelated bone marrow donor whose identity has been protected using an international code for identification based on the Patient International Data Protection. After the clinician has verified that the specimen identification matches the request form, the anticoagulant tube is then checked to ascertain that the correct sample has been sent to the laboratory. For HLA genotyping, an EDTA anticoagulant