Phlebotomy Case Study Assignment

Case 1

A phlebotomist must collect a CBC specimen from a 3-year-old boy.

1. Should it be drawn capillary or venipuncture? What site should be chosen?

2. List the equipment that should be used, and how should the phlebotomist proceed to collect the specimen?

3. What problems could the phlebotomist encounter during this draw?

Case 2

A phlebotomist must perform a venipuncture to collect red, light blue, green, and lavender stopper tubes from a patient.

1. What is the order of draw for collecting these tubes?

2. What additives are contained in each of the tubes? Which ones are anticoagulants?

3. Name the laboratory departments or areas where each of the tubes would most likely be sent for testing.

Case 3

A patient scheduled for an operation suspects that she is pregnant. If she is pregnant the operation will have to be postponed, so her physician sends her to an outpatient lab to have a pregnancy test performed. When the physician's office calls the laboratory for the pregnancy test results, a laboratory assistant says the information will be sent immediately through the lab's computer network to the office. Before the information can be sent, the laboratory assistant is called away and leaves the patient's pregnancy test results on the screen.

1. Is this a problem? Explain your answer.

2. What law addresses this situation?

Case 4

A phlebotomist has orders to collect blood from an outpatient. She notices the patient is elderly, so when she goes to the waiting room she yells loudly for Mrs. Smith. She gives Mrs. Smith a urine collection cup and directs her to collect a specimen, then come to the drawing room. When the patient finally sits down in the drawing chair, the phlebotomist notices that she is well beyond the 5 minute limit per patient that her supervisor requires. So, she ties the tourniquet tightly, palpates a vein, cleans the arm, assembles her equipment, and inserts the needle before the alcohol is dry. The vein rolls so she redirects the needle. Finally blood slowly enters the ETS tube, but she manages to fill all the tubes needed. When releasing the tourniquet, she notices petechiae on the patient's arm. She places a cotton ball on the arm and holds it in place with tape. She directs the patient to the exit.

1. What errors has the phlebotomist made?

2. What complications might be expected in the patient?