Education Found Effective in Improving Venipunctures
by Dennis Ernst
Thirty-nine phlebotomists were observed drawing 126 patients and their compliance with a checklist recorded. The most frequently committed error was improper hand hygiene (42 percent), followed by failure to follow the correct order of draw (19 percent), and improper sample mixing (21 percent).
Significant improvement was seen for all three in regards to all three error frequencies. Those performing improper hand hygiene decreased from 42 percent to 10 percent; improper tube mixing decreased from 19 percent to 3 percent); and the rate of those filling tubes in the wrong order of draw declined from 21 percent to 12 percent..
According to the authors, controlling preanalytic quality by observational analysis is an effective way to identify critical issues in the blood sampling procedure. They also concluded corrective actions, especially in the form of educational activities, results in better adherence to the established protocol for collection blood samples.