A patient arrives to submit a sample for a chain of custody urine ...

[humphriesbr@me.com]

A patient arrives to submit a sample for a chain of custody urine test. Upon entering the restroom, the patient says her 10-year-old daughter must go into the restroom with her because the child is afraid to be left alone. How should you handle this situation?

Question 2

You are having difficulty drawing blood from a patient and try two successive light blue top, citrate tubes for the collection of a Protime test. Both tubes fill only half full. To avoid redrawing the patient, you pour one tube into the other to make a full tube and send it to the lab. How will this affect the test results?

[Ksanderson1296]

Answer to Question 1

You must tell the patient that the child is not allowed in the restroom with her. The child may stand outside the door and talk to the mother while you observe the child. It is common to have a child submit the urine sample for an adult to get a drug-free sample for the chain of custody sample. No one should be allowed in the restroom with the person collecting the sample.

Answer to Question 2

The results will be affected because the anticoagulant from the two tubes has been combined, doubling it. Pouring two half-full tubes together will change the needed 1:9 ratio of anticoagulant to blood. This will lengthen the time for the Protime and give inaccurate results to the physician.