Test request forms and sample acceptance criteria

You must follow our policy on acceptance criteria for patient blood samples in clinical labs (PDF, 165KB) when requesting tests from our H&I lab.

Sample tubes

Ideally, sample tubes will be handwritten clearly, although addressograph labels are acceptable for non-transfusion related work.

For transfusion related work (e.g. FNAIT, PTP and platelet refractoriness) sample tubes must be handwritten.

Details

Patient details on sample & request form must match exactly.

These details are mandatory requirements and samples will be discarded if they are missing from the sample tube:

• Surname (correctly spelt and in full)
• Forename (correctly spelt and in full)
• Date of birth
• Unique identification number - all samples must be labelled with the patient's CHI number, an alternative unique identifier (hospital number or emergency number) may be used if the patient does not have a CHI number

Request forms

Adressographs labels may be used for non-transfusion work.

For transfusion related work (e.g FNAIT, PTP and platelet refractoriness) request forms must be handwritten.

Details

Patient details on sample and request form must match exactly.

These details are mandatory requirements and samples will be discarded if they are missing from the request form:

• Patient surname and first name (spelt correctly and in full)
• Date of birth
• Unique identification number - all samples must be labelled with the patient's CHI number, an alternative unique identifier (hospital number or emergency number) may be used if the patient does not have a CHI number

These details are desirable, if they are missing from the request form you might be contacted to discuss the request.

The person making the test request is responsible for ensuring the H&I laboratory is made aware of any special requirements that might be necessary, including:

• Clinical details/reason for request (for example pre-RRT, rejection, biopsy)
• Date/time of sampling
• Contact details of referring clinician/location of patient area/destination of report

Our sample request form

Download our Edinburgh H&I Laboratory sample request form.