By Meghan McGowan
Read time: 3 mins.
Today’s medical industry rests heavily on human biological testing. With a simple blood draw, swab, or biopsy, doctors can diagnose diseases, identify genetic markers, assess medication efficacy, and more.
This innovation, however, relies on samples being collected from patients correctly, stored properly, and assessed accurately. The stakes for lab technicians are high, and they face many challenges and opportunities for mistakes. Addressing these problems not only improves patient health outcomes, but can make daily work for lab technicians more streamlined, more accurate, and more sustainable.
LabChoice supports modern labs with a complete range of laboratory supplies.
Physical Strain
Laboratory professionals are at high risk for strains, carpal tunnel, and other repetitive strain injuries. Tasks like transferring with pipettes for extended periods can damage the tendons, nerves, and muscles, particularly in the hands, arms, and shoulders. Hunching over a workbench or microscope for hours can do lasting damage to a lab tech’s back and neck, and long days spent standing can be detrimental to the legs and feet as well.
Solution: Ergonomic Equipment
Mechanical and electronic pipettes are valuable tools that allow lab workers to transfer solutions with minimal effort and improved speed and consistency. Both can be designed with reduced weight to make them easier to hold for long periods of time, as well as reduced operational pressure, taking less force to aspirate and dispense solutions. Multi-channel pipettes can even dispense multiple transfers at once, further reducing effort.
Ergonomic chairs and stools and workbenches with adjustable heights are also important when it comes to reducing physical strain on the body during lab work, allowing for adjustments to help maintain proper posture and prevent injuries.
Documentation and Labeling Errors
While rare, sample mislabeling and documentation errors do happen. When they do, they may need to be recollected, or diagnostic errors could occur. Missing or incomplete labels, illegible handwriting, or labels that degrade during handling or storage can lead to sample mix-ups or invalid results.
Solution: Supply Labeling
Durable, easy-to-read labels on lab supplies can help to reduce the risk of errors in the lab. Microscope slides with frosted borders, for instance, help keep handwriting from fading or being wiped away, and add opacity to make labels more legible.
Another indispensable resource for minimizing labeling errors is a barcode system, which scans samples to retrieve patient information. With a barcoding system, labeling everything from collection vials to petri dishes can be fast and simple with an automatically printed sticker. These measures can help to reduce disruptions in both lab workflow and patient care.
Specimen Contamination
Laboratory technicians know just how easy it is for sample contamination to happen. Improper handling techniques, poor storage, or using the wrong sample containers can all introduce foreign substances into a specimen that could skew or invalidate test results.
Solution: Secure Specimen Containers
Specimen containers are crucial to the integrity of samples. Sealed and sterile containers help to reduce the risk of dust, dirt, skin cells, hair, or unrelated bacteria or germs, keeping patient samples secure and protected.
Using the right specimen containers for a sample (e.g., urine containers for urine samples) is also crucial to ensure proper seals and prevent leaks during transport. Additionally, some types of samples require specific types of containers for proper collection, such as stool sample containers, which usually include a built-in spoon or spatula to support accurate sample collection.
Making a Difference with Equipment
By using the right equipment, systems, and practices for each sample and every test, lab techs and clinical teams can work to keep patient care running smoothly and diagnoses coming quickly.
The work that lab technicians do is both important and demanding, and they need all the support they can get. Taking some of the strain off of medical laboratories and their staff is possible, and the impact on both individual lab professionals and innumerable patients is more than worthwhile.
Explore our LabChoice line today!