[Histonet] What are peoples feelings on pre labling slides?

[Vicki Gauch]

We do not pre-label any of our slides in the lab.  We cut our slides and
then label them as we do each one.  As for frozens, we label the slide
as we cut the frozen- if we do multiple frozens on that block we label
each one as we go.  It has been our policy to do it this way for a long
time now..in the past we had a few techs who decided to do it "their"
way instead of following our procedures and it almost resulted in a case
being sent out mislabeled  (fortunately it ws caught before it left the
lab) which is why we do not allow that practice in our lab.

Vicki Gauch
AMCH
Albany, NY

>>> "Stephen Peters M.D." <petepath <@t> yahoo.com> 2/3/2006 8:02:01 AM >>>
I am curious to see if it is considered acceptable practice to
pre-label multiple 
  slides before cutting the blocks and picking the tissues up on these
pre-labeled 
  slides. We came close to a dangerous misdiagnosis because a tech
picked up
   a malignant section from a " part 2 breast biopsy" on a prelabled
part 1 slide. Luckily it made no sense that only one of many slides
contained tumor that 
  looked like it was coming from an advanced tumor. After playing match
the blocks
   it was obvious that the malignant part one slide matched a part 2
block. It seems 
  to me that this is a potentially dangerous habit despite the
convenience of 
  assembly line labeling. Early in my career I stopped labeling my
frozen section slides 
  up front and wait until after I pick up the section. When I am
cutting frozens I  make
   variable #s of slides depending on the situation. Working quickly
under the
   pressure of multiple cases it is not hard to pick up the wrong slide
and make
   this mistake. I am curious to hear peoples thoughts.


Stephen Peters M.D. 
Vice Chairman of Pathology
Hackensack University Medical Center 
201 996 4836
 
Pathology Innovations, LLC 
410 Old Mill Lane, 
Wyckoff, NJ 07481 
201 847 7600 
www.pathologyinnovations.com 




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