Patient samples sent to CUH lab regularly have wrong name on label

Blood and tissue samples sent to the pathology lab at Cork University Hospital regularly have the wrong patient name on the label, according to internal hospital documents seen by the Irish Examiner.

The revelation, contained in the pathology department’s risk register — a management tool to identify and manage risk — says the incorrect labelling, both on the bottle containing the sample and the request form, occurs at the point where the sample is taken. This includes GP surgeries, outpatient clinics, and in hospitals.

Asked by the Irish Examiner to explain how samples are regularly labelled incorrectly, CUH said the pathology department was not the source of the problem. “The issue occurs outside of the pathology environment and is primarily down to mislabelling of samples at the time of sample acquisition,” CUH said.