I have always believed that pre-labeling slides is hazardous.  When the
workload is heavy and labs are often chaotic it makes sense to label the
slide as you are looking at the block you just cut. Most mis-labeling in our
lab has been done by people labeling their slides ahead of time. They may
think they are saving time but fixing mistakes is much more time consuming.

-----Original Message-----
From: Martin, Ronald [mailto:Ronald.Martin@umassmed.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 9:25 AM
To: JHoffpa464@aol.com
Cc: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: RE: Minnesota histology mistake


By having several similar cases (ie. breast,prostate,colon bx's) on one cold
plate at a time and having slides already numbered/made up. I have seen
techs accidently place the wrong tissue on the wrong numbered slide. I have
also seen techs write the wrong numner on slides before. Sorry for the
confusing question.

-----Original Message-----
From: JHoffpa464@aol.com [mailto:JHoffpa464@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 9:15 AM
To: Martin, Ronald; Lynne.Bell@hitchcock.org;
histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: Re: Minnesota histology mistake


how do you put the worng tissue on the wrong slide. i know for a fact you
can only operate one microtome at a time. i have tried to use two at once,
when very busy.