u/Flaky-Basket

For those of us that have been in the field (MLS, MLT, and Assistants), how has your workplace handled receiving sample bags that either

1. Have more than one patient in them, but only one requisition

or

2. Receiving a bag that has a requisition for a completely different patient, but the samples provided are for someone else?

I know that these kind of mix ups happen, but at least for the lab assistants at my lab, its been happening more frequently...so much so to the point that the owner has started a log of mixed samples and wants them to report the clinic that is doing it. I know that lab assistants should be catching these mistakes when they're labeling, but one time it slipped under the radar for one assistant (he came into work dead tired because he already worked a 14 hour shift and was back to work 9 hours later) and he was reprimanded for it because his entire job is making sure labeling is appropriate. They didnt grill him or anything and he was there for 7 years, so thats why maybe they took leniency on him compared to the newer assistants. Its kind of annoying having to amend reports because the doctors, nurses, or clinics were inept enough to mix up samples they were sending to us. Its even funnier when they call demanding to know why it was rejected just for CSRs to say "you messed up the samples..." and then they're quick to blame the lab

...They'll probably tell the patient that the lab messed up anyway absolving themselves from responsibility

Why are lab assistants always being the first to be blamed by lab supervisors and management...? I've been an MLS for 13 years and the current company I've worked at for 5 has such a high turn over rate of lab assistants. In the time I've been here, they've gone through probably 30-40 assistants. One incident I remember happening was a send out person losing a urine cup. The protocol at the time was the lab assistants didn't deal with send out stuff and handed it directly to the appropriate people. Well, since there were no extras, that cup was gone. The boss lady called the lab assistant who gave the cup to the send out person into the conference room and grilled the poor girl for 20 minutes. Well, they later found the cup and instead of management saying sorry, they just enacted a policy that even send out stuff needs extras taken if there is enough. The fun ier part of this story is the lab supervisors was called into the meeting too and yelled at the assistant. The supervisor apologized and then later admitted she had no idea what she was yelling at the assistant about....how crazy is that