Chapter 1 · Patient preparation and collection instructions

Patient preparation instructions must be documented and provided to patients before collection. Common requirements include: fasting status for glucose and lipids, medication holds for certain tests, timing of specimen collection relative to therapy, and posture for certain analytes. Collection procedures must be documented for every test type. The laboratory must specify acceptable tubes, volumes, and order of draw.

Practical example

A patient arrives for a fasting glucose. The phlebotomist notices the patient has a coffee cup. Good practice: The phlebotomist asks when the patient last ate or drank anything other than water, confirms the patient has been fasting for 8 hours, and proceeds with collection. If not fasting, the phlebotomist explains the requirement, reschedules, and documents the encounter. Poor practice: The phlebotomist collects anyway to avoid delaying the clinic — results will be unreliable and the clinician will act on incorrect data.

What this means for your practice: Non-compliance with patient preparation invalidates the result. A correctly collected sample on the right day is always better than a result obtained at the wrong time.