Influence of method of specimen collection on various preanalytical sample quality indicators in EDTA blood collected for cell counting.

Improving specimen quality as well as healthcare worker (HCW) safety poses significant concerns for today's laboratories. With an increasing number of diagnostic tests requested, laboratory professionals are faced with challenges to reduce laboratory errors, improve the quality of laboratory results to assure accurate diagnosis and implement initiatives to ensure healthcare worker safety and minimize risk of exposure to bloodborne pathogens. A prior study conducted in 2008 reported that variations in blood collection methods for clinical chemistry assays may affect overall specimen quality. As a follow up, the current study assessed the quality of 22563 patient specimens for cell counting in EDTA blood collection tubes that were obtained with needle and syringe collection (open) using either disposable tubes or re-washed glass vials or with an evacuated blood collection system (closed). Based on the observations, the use of the evacuated blood collection system resulted in better preanalytical specimen quality as compared with needle and syringe collection. The findings also showed an approximately 70-fold reduction in the incidence of clotting as well as fewer instrument-generated flags using the evacuated collection system. In addition, the use of an evacuated collection system for venous blood collection demonstrated lesser chance of blood exposure to healthcare workers.