nursesausha

Something happened in our women's clinic and I need advice. We had a patient come for pap smear and I always label the specimen at the bedside, however, the lab requisition (paper order) is placed in the pocket of the specimen later when the provider prints it off. Well somehow another patient's requisition was put in the bag so it did not match the specimen. Within three days I called the two patient's who were supposedly swapped and made them appts to have specimens recollected as the lab requested. One patient has already had her pap and it was fine the other patient was to come in this next month to have her pap done again. Well the patient (who has not had a repeat pap) had some urinary problems and saw a urologist who ordered pelvic CT. The CT came back with possible endocervical endometrial malignancy. I am glad that the patient had a CT to discover this. It has only been a month, I am glad that they found the possible cancer now. Should I feel at risk for medical negligence, I did call the patient and reschedule her to do another pap. I have never had anything like that happen before and it really has me down.