Question

Discussion Question #2: You are a phlebotomist for a community laboratory, and you report for work on an extremely busy day. You travel daily from the lab where you work to the hospital to draw blood and then back to the lab. You have finished drawing blood at the hospital and are on your way back to the lab when you get a cell phone call that the hospital needs a complete blood count and electrolytes drawn STAT for a patient who has just come into the ER. Would you turn around and go back to the ER or drop off your current blood samples and then go back to the ER? Explain your answer. What does this question have to do with preventing medical malpractice lawsuits?

Answer 1

As a phlebotomist during this kind of situation, it is more critical and the action should need to be taken according to the scenario,

• If the phlebotomist had arrived all the way and got closer to his lab, it is better to go to the lab first and then return to the hospital, or arrange an alternate professional person to collect the blood from the hospitals.
• If he had gone just few a distance from the hospital he may consider and try to turn around and go back to the hospital. But this decision depends on what type of sample they had been collected from the hospital. Every sample has some different guideline and protocol, so he needs to analyze before he take a action.

By means of following and considering the appropriate guidelines during this time of situation and getting immediate help from experienced professionals he would be safe from all kind medical malpractice lawsuits.