The two previous case scenarios are examples of how miscommunication can impact patient safety They also demonstrate how miscommunication can affect how the laboratory is viewed in the customer service role.
In the first scenario, the provider had to reorder the blood draw and wait additional time for the results, thus delaying the treatment for the patient. This was the result of not miscommunication., This also gives the provider, and possibly the patient's family, a poor reflection of the quality of the laboratory's service.
In the same way, case scenario 2 may result in the nurse and doctor questioning the reliability of the laboratory's service.
Let's look at another case scenario.
Case Scenario 3
A provider calls the Laboratory Support department to find out the correct specimen for a reference laboratory test. Unfortunately, the Laboratory Support staff member provided the wrong information to the provider. It wasn't realized until the specimen was received for testing that the specimen had not been collected in the correct collection tube. The test had to be canceled, the provider had to be notified, and the patient had to have an additional blood sample collected.
It is easy to see how this case scenario can cause the provider to mistrust the information they receive from the laboratory. In addition, it required the patient to undergo an additional unnecessary blood draw.
