Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records
Patent
1992-12-30
1996-04-16
Hajec, Donald T.
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
235456, 235494, 209 33, 209524, 209583, G06F 1520, G06K 710, G06K 1906
Patent
active
055084990
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for the univocal and permanent connection of containers for medial use to a given patient.
In a clinical investigation process it is possible to distinguish between a pre-analytical step, an analytical step and a post-analytical step.
The pre-analytical step is the step which precedes the analysis and is constituted by the processing of the prescription made by the `base doctor` or by the `specialist doctor` (with all the flow of related data among the different bodies which have a say in the matter, from the administrative bodies to the technical ones, to end with the party directly affected), by the taking of the sample, by its identification, by the subsequent handling towards and within the laboratory's operational centres, by the corresponding handling operations (other than the analytical ones).
The analytical step is the step in which the material is analysed in its components and the post-analytical step is the step in which the results of the analyses are collected and printed in a final report which is handed to the patient and/or to the doctor.
The strong growth in demand for laboratory work over the past twenty years has involved great technological development with the creation of a wide area of laboratory automation: in particular the analytical step and the post-analytical step have been automated, while scant attention has been paid to the automation of the pre-analytical step.
In current laboratory medicine the processing of raw materials constituted by biological materials (blood, urine, etc.) taken from the same patient, as well as their communication, occurs manually or, under the best of circumstances, semi-automatically and in any case, at all times, with serious prejudice to the correct attribution of the analytical result.
In the case of manual processing the doctor or the nurse who takes the sample manually writes the patient's name (and possibly the requested analyses) on the test tube in which the biological material (blood, urine, etc.) is collected, and on the request for analyses.
Generally speaking, when they enter the laboratory, a number is written on the test tubes belonging to each single patient and on the request for analyses, commonly known as the access number, which, under the best of circumstances, is repeated each time there is a transfer of biological material from the original test tube to other subsidiary test tubes; thus number out to constitute the safety element for the identification of the material along the entire process. In certain cases the access number is then replaced with another number, different from one type of analysis to the next, or from one laboratory section to the other.
The name of the patient is obtained at the time the sample is taken by asking the patient himself (if he is conscious) or by taking it from the bed in which the patient is or from the clinical record (when the patient is unconscious).
The risks of error connected with these operations are obvious: possibility of error in the manual writing on a test tube and/or a request for analysis on the part of a tire operator who, perhaps, has spoken with two patients in succession; possibility of exchanging data from one patient's clinical record and another's name; possibility of exchanging test tubes and/or medical reports related to different patients. In addition, error is intrinsic in the abovementioned methodology since the systematic exchange of technology and code number, in the different operations of identification of the different steps constituting the analytical process, systematically creates such a possiblity.
In the case of semi-automatic operations, when the patient is admitted, to hospitals or other health organizations equipped with a computer, a certain number of labels is produced containing the name and address of the patient, which are inserted in his clinical record. When it is necessary to execute laboratory analyses, the section staff takes one or more labels, adds the necess
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Ferguson Jr. Gerald J.
Filipek Jeffrey R.
Hajec Donald T.
Healtech S.A.
Smith Evan R.
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