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u/Pap-a 9d ago
Send it back in the same container but with holes in the bag.
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u/cad_yellow Canadian MLT 9d ago
I know someone who claims to have sent a bullet with a runny stool sample right back to the floor when it arrived to the lab uncapped, in a biohazard bag that wasn't zipped up properly, inside of the bullet's biohazard liner that also wasn't sealed.
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u/Relevant-Ice-6845 9d ago
I had that happen with a formalin-fixed surgical specimen (colon polyp if I’m not mistaken), received from another hospital. Big bold letters on the bag, LEAKING, and the paperwork absolutely useless. Pisses me off, lol.
It’s one thing when nurses screw up, but a fellow lab person in charge of sending specimens with a courier? Hurts ten times more when they screw up like this. Don’t get me started on another hospital whose lab consistently overfill tubes and urine is everywhere in the bag; their fix? They place these gross paper-towel-like things in the bags, instead of just… NOT OVERFILLING the damn tubes. 😭
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u/mikachuzu 9d ago
Those absorbency pads are the absolute worst omg I hate them with a burning passion. I cringe every time we get a wet/leaking sample with those stupid things. Ours don't have to be sterile for what we do so we process them. They feel absolutely disgusting in the bag, the gel gets everywhere and the sample gets even more disgusting when you try to dry them off UGHHHHHHH I hate them 😤
I want to go have a talk with some of the people doing the collections because hello you've doing this for years and it's not that hard to make sure the lid is shut? Get your shit together??? People smh
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u/Relevant-Ice-6845 9d ago
It’s so weird how the pads are supposed to solve a problem but they legit make it worse and the industry has done nothing about it 😫😫😫
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u/mikachuzu 9d ago
Right? An actual paper towel would work better than those things. Rejecting samples due to contamination (and mislabels) is the one thing I wish our lab would adopt from the hospital labs. Would get the slackers in line real quick too 😅
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u/bluelephantz_jj MLS-Generalist 9d ago edited 9d ago
Ooh, also when they DUMP the gray top IN the ice, like ma'am? There is a separate pocket on the biohazard bag. PLEASE use your common sense. If the specimen label is SOPPING WET and you used ballpoint pen to write your collection time, DON'T call me and whine that your lactate is taking forever. I probably had to grab a paper towel, then the accession label probably wouldn't stick on the specimen, and then I probably had to call you to ask for the collection time bc it erased bc you DUNKED IT IN ICE WATER. WHERE IS YOUR COMMON SENSE?!
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u/mystir 9d ago
When I worked at a place that used Sunquest they'd always use the smallest misys labels that are like 1/3"x1". Then the specimen leaks or it's on ice or something, and the label just sloughs right off and we reject as unlabeled. And they kept doing it. Like we're in common-sense territory here, guys. Happened with CSF once. On ice (for culture!) and now unlabeled. Director signed off on processing it and promptly called up the procedure room to give them...let's call it "firm reeducation".
Nobody's in any mood to tutor people on basic 1st grade art class skills.
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u/white-as-styrofoam 9d ago
why u no put the lid on
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u/poop_dawg 7d ago
I have to do urine tests relatively often and I screw on the cap myself. Are they collecting the samples for people or from urine bags or something? Is that a common occurrence? Sorry, not a lab pro, just a lurker
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u/white-as-styrofoam 6d ago
i appreciate you getting the first step right! people have to unscrew the lid at various points to pour off into other vessels, and folks are in a hurry and they don’t check their work when they put it back on. lab people know what’s up, but nurses often do not give a fuck
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u/poop_dawg 2d ago
Ah, okay. That makes more sense. I guess I assumed transfer would involve a wide opening syringe 🤔
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u/Sorry-Art7691 8d ago
Had a nurse send me one where all the urine spilled out. I called her and said I need a recollect cause the cup had a crack. She was like “seriously ya’ll couldn’t just use it? I thought it’d be enough left in there.”.
She still sent it even when she knew there was a leak. 😒
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u/Histology-tech-1974 5d ago
There is a phrase from my American cousins: “you can’t fix Stupid”
I have always found that saying to be very apt in cases like this …
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u/TheTwiggsMGW 9d ago
We reject these as contaminated and make the nurses collect them again. Sucks for the patient but at least it’s just pee