[Histonet] Re: Log Book

[Shelly Coker]

Kathy,
 
I worked in a hospital at one time where we were expected to pick up the specimens from the OR.  We actually created a log book that stayed in the OR.  The nurses simply placed a patient label in a spiral notebook and noted the specimens beside it.  When we went to pick them up, we checked each specimen off and put our initials, date and time in the book. We would not pick up any specimens with a discrepancy until the nursing staff corrected it.  In the instance you are describing, the specimens for said patient would not have been picked up until the nursing staff corrected the log book or found the specimen.  We did also date/time stamp the requisitions when we got back to the lab as well.
 
Good luck and I hope you find your specimen :(   
 
Michelle

Good Monday Morning,  We had a serious incident Friday with O.R.  My aide went
down to get the specimens from O.R. about 9am. (which were left overs from the
night before).  She did not stamp in the specimens before she left.  When I had
time to stamp them in and record them in the log book I discovered that the
colon was not there.  Two other specimens from that patient where in the bag but
no colon.  So I went down to O.R. to see where it was.  Of course no one knows
what happened to the colon.  The doctors are furious by all means.  Now the O.R.
thinks the path lab screwed up.  So my questions is how do others log in the
specimens as they come into the lab.  We have 2 couriers that brings specimens
when we are not in the lab from other hospitals.  How do you make sure that whom
ever brings the specimens actually brings the ones they say they do?  Do you
have a log book that every specimen that is brought into the lab is written down
by the person who brings it in?  Right now we have a log book but it is written
in as we are accessing  the specimens.  So the specimens may have been there
overnight. We are a very small lab and we do almost everything by hand including
writing in the log book.  Someday we want to be able to scan by bar codes but
right now we can not do that. Thanks for any help you can give me. 
Kathy Gorham, H.T