Skip Navigation
The Collection >
Mislabeling of cases, specimens, blocks, and slides: a College of American Pathologists study of 136 institutions.
Nakhleh RE, Idowu MO, Souers RJ, Meier FA, Bekeris LG. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2011;135:969-974.

Looking across 136 institutions, this study quantified mislabeling rates at a cumulative total of 0.11% for cases, specimens, blocks, and slides. The authors reinforce the need for quality monitoring since most errors were caught in the immediate steps following the error.

PubMed citation icon indicating hyperlink to external website
Available at icon indicating hyperlink to external website
white box
Related Resources
STUDY
Mislabeled units of umbilical cord blood detected by a quality assurance program at the transplantation center.
McCullough J, McKenna D, Kadidlo D, et al. Blood. 2009:114:1684-1688.
STUDY
Decreasing mislabeled laboratory specimens using barcode technology and bedside printers.
Brown JE, Smith N, Sherfy BR. J Nurs Care Qual. 2011;26:13-21.
STUDY
Quality improvement project to reduce perioperative opioid oversedation events in a paediatric hospital.
Vermaire D, Caruso MC, Lesko A, et al. BMJ Qual Saf. 2011;20:895-902.
STUDY
Developing and pilot testing practical measures of preanalytic surgical specimen identification defects.
Bixenstine PJ, Zarbo RJ, Holzmueller CG, et al. Am J Med Qual. 2013 Jan 15; [Epub ahead of print].
View all related resources...
white box
Download: Adobe Reader   email icon Email
tan box
Find Related Resources by...
Resource Type   
 style=
Target Audience  
 style=
Clinical Area  
 style=
Safety Target  
 style=
Error Types  
 style=
Approach to Improving Safety  
 style=
Origin/Sponsor  
white box