Blood Drug Testing

What do they mean when they say your blood tests were not processed properly?

My midwife called and said I need to call her as 'your blood tests have not been processed properly'..what does this translate to for normal non medical folk?

Public Comments

1. Probably that they made a mistake somewhere (did the wrong test, contaminated the sample, lost the sample, etc.), and are going to have to draw more blood
2. It can mean a bunch of things. There may not have been enough blood drawn, it was spilled. A lot of lab tests are done in machines. the sample may have been broken in the machine. It could also mean that the test was ordered incorrectly, or the lab did the wrong test. It could also mean that the sample was labeled incorrectly, or it never made it to the lab. Often the providers office never knows what happens. The lab will just send a letter saying the test was not performed.
3. I am assuming, since your midwife is your health care provider, that she drew blood and delivered it to a laboratory for testing. There are myriad ways blood can be "not processed properly". From an inadequate venipuncture, it is possible for blood to begin to clot before it gets into the tube. If the tube has anticoagulant, these small clots can clog up the diagnostic machines, or skew the results, especially if the test was to check your clotting ability. Another problem of inadequate venipuncture, is forcing the blood into the tube with too much vacuum, which can damage blood cells, and make the serum red. Many tests are skewed because of hemolysis, so the lab will not accept hemolyzed samples. The blood could have been drawn into a different type of tube than the test requires. Tests for blood clotting require tubes with blue stoppers, blood cell counts require tubes with purple stoppers. There are many different types of prepared tubes. The midwife, or whoever drew your blood, might not have properly labeled the tubes when the blood was taken. It is a legal requirement that all samples accepted for analysis have absolute identification on the tube, and well as the orders for the tests on the accompanying documentation. Whoever transported your blood samples to the laboratory might not have provided the proper atmosphere for the samples. Blood is living, and some values, especially electrolytes and glucose, continue to change in the blood in the tube, so the blood must get to the lab quickly. In addition, some samples require refrigeration, or even freezing during transport. After the blood sample arrives in the lab, the tech writes the information into the log, verifies the required information, ascertains if the sample has been properly handled from the patient to the lab, that is, delivered quickly, kept cool, etc. Some labs accept specimens for relatively rare tests only on certain days, or only at certain times of the day, because only very skilled techs can do those tests, and those techs usually only work the first shift. Many blood samples are centrifuged to separate the serum or plasma from the cells, because many tests require only serum, or only plasma. It has been known for tubes to break in a centrifuge. It has been known for a test reagent to have gotten contaminated or outdated, and the test been improperly done. So, as you can see, there are thousands of ways your blood sample might have been not properly processed. Quality control in labs is very strict, simply because there are so many things that can go wrong, and because there are times when a wrong value can be deadly for the patient. So be a good sport and allow the midwife to collect a new sample, and be sure she is prepared to transport the sample properly. The lab must have a good sample to do good work, and to give your health care practitioner valid information about the status of your health. It is reassuring that the lab has so many safeguards.
4. It could mean several different things, a technical or machine error, or human error - The sample may not have been adequately refrigerated or otherwise improperly stored, or the chemicals that were added to your blood sample could be past the use by date. There may not have been enough blood to run all the tests requested, or mistakenly been thrown away (as is always done when tests are completed). Someone in the lab could have dropped the test tube... Most labs are small, crowded with equipment, with little room for more one or two technicians to work, and once-in-a-while accidents happen. There may be some other reasons, but in my experience, most laboratories workers are serious about their work and are careful with samples. You'll probably have to give another sample of blood, and while there you have every right to ask what happened. Hope this helped.