Specimen Prep, Tracking, and Transporting

Guidelines:

• Permanent, fresh, frozen
  • Call before frozens!
  • In person
  • Margins
• Labeling
  • Pt label
  • Appendix
    • Permanent IT:1539 FT:1543 01 Jan 2022 Dr. Smith, A Initial witness init
  • Label formalin if not prefilled!
    • Only enough to engulf the specimen
    • Don’t pour in room
• Ordering per facility policy
  • Most have RN place order during case

Considerations:

• Beware placing order ahead of time
• Short superior Long later Double Deep
  • SSLLDD
  • Variations
  • Non-absorbable stitch
• Write specimens on board
• Verify before removal from field
• Breast tissue
  • Always fresh, straight to lab/mammo
    • Facility policy
  • Radioactive, per facility
    • Typically scanned by rad safety

Nurse’s role:

• Receive specimen from field, label, order, transport
• Verify all information with MD
• Communicate with lab, esp for frozens

Pitfalls:

• Delegating transport
• Placed in formalin
• Mislabel
• Thrown out with table
• Contaminated field when retrieving

Examples:

• Frozen specimen retrieved, followed by an unexpected additional frozen (call lab, place order, explain, relay information margins vs cx vs etc)

Linchpins (Key Points):

• Most specimens are one-shot and have 0 room for fail, communication is key