Scanning for Safety

Purpose:
The purpose of this project was to improve patient safety by eliminating mislabeled specimens, improve label management for nursing and phlebotomy staff and a quicker turn around time from collection to resulted.

Significance:
Errors can occur at any step in the testing process,and it is estimated that 1 of 4 errors can have consequences for the patient. More than 160,000 adverse medical events per year have been suspected in the United States because of misidentification of patient or laboratory specimen.

Strategy and Implementation:
Collection Management (CM)is a barcode Point-of-Care (POC) laboratory application developed by Sunquest Information Systems, INC which enables accurate and timely collection of specimens. Utilizing barcode technology at the bedside ensures positive patient ID and allows organizations to save time and dramatically reduce errors by automating their processes for specimen collection, labeling and data entry of results. The potentioal to reduce errors and establish reliability related to this particular task were the catalysts for this pilot. The concept was not foreign, as this 520 inpatient bed:urban, acute care hospital had been using scanning technology for medication administration since June 2008. An eighteen bed Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit along with a decentralized inpatient Phlebotomy Team was chosen by the institution's Quality Director to trial this point-of care laboratory application.

Evaluation:
Prior to implementation the ICU expended 90 minutes of label sorting and post implementation the task was eliminated. Phlebotomy team expended 360 minutes in label management. This task is now eliminated. CTICU showed a 67% decrease in labeling errors. Phlebotomy has had 0 reported labeling errors

Implications for Practice:
Practice implications for Collection Manager include a more stream line and safer lab specimen collection process. This process includes bar code scanning and bedside label printing to ensure correct patient idetification has occured at POC.