In conjunction with laboratory policies and procedures, effective communication should be an integral part of the laboratory's quality management system (QMS).
An important part of the QMS is reporting and reviewing nonconforming events. This gauges the laboratory's room for improvement in eliminating or mitigating the risk of events reoccurring.
Consider the following scenario.
Case Scenario 3
A provider calls the Laboratory Support area to find out what the correct tube type is for a reference laboratory test. Unfortunately, the Laboratory Support staff member provided the incorrect information to the provider. The error wasn't noticed until the specimen was received in the laboratory for processing. The sample had been submitted in the incorrect tube type. The test had to be canceled, the provider notified, and the sample recorrected requiring the patient to have an additional blood draw.
With a proper QMS, the provider would communicate this event to the manager of the Laboratory Support area. The manager would review this event from a systems perspective to see why the incorrect information was communicated to the provider.
Was the employee trained? If so, was the training adequate? Is the information regarding send-out tube types readily available to the employee? Can this information be provided somewhere so the provider doesn't need to call the lab?Having a robust QMS is the best way to eliminate or mitigate risks related to miscommunication.
