The Use of Bar-Coding and Tracking in Surgical Pathology to Enhance Patient Safety

摘要

During the processing of surgical specimens, the sampleis moved through many areas of the laboratory; thus, a poten-tial for mislabeling and subsequent harm to a patient exists.Many practices are currently in place to minimize this poten-tial, but errors may occur. The intent of this process improve-ment plan was to significantly reduce errors in labeling ofpatient specimens from receipt of specimen to diagnosticreporting. The current practices of specimen receipt, pro-cessing, and slide labeling were analyzed for potential bar-coding by use of the current laboratory information system(CoPath Plus, Cerner Corp.). To eliminate labeling errors,bar-coding the patient information throughout the entire pro-cess was performed. In addition to reducing labeling errors,this process was implemented to assist in tracking a speci-men throughout the entire laboratory, from receipt to diag-nosis. Because each step in specimen handling has the abilityto be traced and viewed in the CoPath Plus informationsystem, a comprehensive audit trail can be evaluated forspecimen integrity, process productivity, and employee com-petency.