Pathology is a study that contributes to the field of medicine by analyzing diseases through the study of body tissues and fluids such as urine or blood samples. Diagnosis, on the other hand, is the procedure of testing and finding a certain disease and its nature. A patient’s health is always at stake whenever pathologist commits errors in his/her laboratory tests. It is a common mistake for any laboratory to commit errors in testing their specimens. In a study done by the College of American Pathologists headed by Dr.
Paul Valenstein, 13 (5%) out of 272 pathology analyses were involved in allegations that the results had been mixed up with other patients. Pathology and diagnostic laboratories have equipment that are used to identify errors but still, these equipment are not enough to completely eliminate error in sample identification. The Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the College of American Pathologists were alarmed about the sample misidentification happening in pathology laboratories and they did necessary actions to eliminate the error in medical tests.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave a white paper that contains the importance of correct sample identification in the safety of the patient. Sample misidentification in diagnostic and pathology laboratories may be considered as taboos in the medical community for they are avoided. According to the study of the College of American Pathologists, most of these errors are detected just before they are released. Also, they don’t cause grave danger to the patients because these minute errors cannot cause harm to most of the patients.
Although these positive results regarding sample misidentification in pathology laboratories are obtain by the researchers, errors in sample identification still have great potential in putting the patients in severe injury. [Insert name of Author]
Works Cited
“Pathology. ” Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2007. Microsoft Corporation. 11 Jan 2008 http://encarta. msn. com/encyclopedia_761570165/Pathology. html “Diagnosis. ” Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2007. Microsoft Corporation. 11 Jan 2008
http://encarta. msn. com/encyclopedia_761551914/Diagnosis. html Valenstein, MD,Paul N. , Stephen S. Raab, MD, and Molly K. Walsh, PhD. “Identification Errors Involving Clinical Laboratories: A College of American Pathologists Q-Probes Study of Patient and Specimen Identification Errors at 120 Institutions. ” Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. 2006. College of American Pathologists. 12 Jan 2008 http://arpa. allenpress. com/arpaonline/? request=get-document&doi=10. 1043%2F1543-2165(2006)130%5B1106:IEICL%5D2. 0. CO%3B2