Hi Peggy,
 
At Northwestern Medical Center in Vermont, we print the institution name,
surgical number, last name, and first initial on our slides.
 
I think this makes it easier to correlate the slide with the gross report,
and I don't see a greater risk of confidentiality issues than with anything
else.  Let's face it, medical personnel should all be aware of
confidentiality policy, and Joe Public isn't going to diagnose anything from
a slide. Now if the final report falls into the wrong hands, that's another
matter.
 
Have a good one
Tim Webster 
Northwestern Medical Center 
Fairfield Street, VT 
(802) 524-1070 
twebster@nmcinc.org 

 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Rice [mailto:MRICE@nbhd.org]
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2001 2:13 PM
To: lpwenk@mail.netquest.com; histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: Re: PATIENT NAMES ON SLIDES


We are using Cerner as our IS system and it prints the number as well as the
patient name as well as special stains and IHC abs.. I do not see a
confidentially issue here as the report  alsov carries the name and the
slides are part of the report.
Mike Rice
Broward General Medical Center
Ft Lauderdale

>>> Lee & Peggy Wenk <lpwenk@mail.netquest.com> 02/23/01 05:39AM >>>
Hearing of a trend of printing the patient's names along with their surgical
number on the slide label , and want to know Hectometer's opinion.

I've been in the field 20+ years. In all that time, I've been told we deal
with ONLYsurgical numbers, not names, once the tissue has been assigned a
number, because:
1. Less likely to confuse numbers than names, especially if two specimens
come down with the same or similar numbers.
2. Confidentiality.

Now, I'm hearing (and seeing) patients' names being printed on the slide
label, along with the surgical number, institution name, and stain name.

I've been told this is part of QC in many places, to make certain that the
name and the surgical number correlate when the pathologists are dictating
their findings, or when slides are being sent out for consultation or at the
request of the patient.

Anyone out there printing the names on the slides?

Has there been any comments about confidentiality?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Peggy A. Wenk, HTL(ASCP)