The Effectiveness of Inking Needle Core Prostate Biopsies for Preventing Patient Specimen Identification Errors: A Technique to Address Joint Commission Patient Safety Goals in Specialty Laboratories

Abstract Context.—The elimination or reduction of medical errors has been a main focus of health care enterprises in the United States since the year 2000. Elimination of errors in patient and specimen identification is a key component of this focus and is the number one goal in the Joint Commission's 2008 National Patient Safety Goals Laboratory Services Program. Objective.—To evaluate the effectiveness of using permanent inks to maintain specimen identity in sequentially submitted prostate needle biopsies. Design.—For a 12-month period, a grossing technician stained each prostate core with permanent ink developed for inking of pathology specimens. A different color was used for each patient, with all the prostate cores from all vials for a particular patient inked with the same color. Five colors were used sequentially: green, blue, yellow, orange, and black. The ink was diluted with distilled water to a consistency that allowed application of a thin, uniform coating of ink along the edges of the prosta...