Linda Beaver, RN, MSN, MHA, administrator at Gateway Endoscopy Center in St. Louis, describes a best practice to improve monitoring of specimens taken at the endoscopy center and resulting pathologies.
Linda Beaver: As far as handling specimens, we have a specimen log for each procedure room that we print out at the end of each day, explaining specific patient information and biopsy information, which location of the colon it was taken from, whether it was a biopsy or polyp removed and so on.
We make a copy and put the copy in a binder so when we get results of the specimens back from the laboratory, we're tracking the results and making sure everything coincides if it is a polyp or biopsy and so on. This way we can also determine if we haven't received a specimen back where exactly it is. The log also gives us a way to track if patient data is wrong, like a birthday or name. If there is a positive result for colon cancer, we call the physicians to verify that the results came back positive.
Learn more about Gateway Endoscopy Center.
Linda Beaver: As far as handling specimens, we have a specimen log for each procedure room that we print out at the end of each day, explaining specific patient information and biopsy information, which location of the colon it was taken from, whether it was a biopsy or polyp removed and so on.
We make a copy and put the copy in a binder so when we get results of the specimens back from the laboratory, we're tracking the results and making sure everything coincides if it is a polyp or biopsy and so on. This way we can also determine if we haven't received a specimen back where exactly it is. The log also gives us a way to track if patient data is wrong, like a birthday or name. If there is a positive result for colon cancer, we call the physicians to verify that the results came back positive.
Learn more about Gateway Endoscopy Center.