In this section
The Division of Laboratory Medicine (DLM) guidelines for specimen acceptance must be followed to ensure that all samples are correctly and unambiguously identified. The policy provides an overarching process to specimen rejection to help balance the requirement to process against the risk to patient safety. Clinical governance issues may arise from errors in specimen identification and/or insufficient clinical information being given with a specimen. To ensure that specimens are linked to the correct patient, adequate identifiers are essential.
Labelling multiple samples from the same patient
If there are multiple samples from the same patient from different sample sites or multiple samples from the same site:
- Ensure each sample is collected in the appropriate sample collection pot
- Ensure each pot is fully labelled with all the appropriate patient demographic information – for HIVE orders each pot should have a unique sample label generated
- Ensure each pot is labelled with the specific sample source location i.e. FNA left neck level I
- If there is more than 1 aspiration for a specific sample location (i.e. 3 aspirations of level V lymph node) these should be collected into the same sample pot and labelled with sample source. The number of aspirations for that site should be available on either the sample pot or provided with the request.
All urgent and specimens on a cancer tracking pathway (HSC205) should be clearly labelled as such. The date and time the specimen was taken is important information that should be included on all requests to determine the length of fixation of the cytology (+/- tissue) specimen.
(Last reviewed February 2025)