Morning Draws:
Phlebotomy employees arrive at 0500 and depart for patient care areas between 0515 and 0520. All floors should have phlebotomy in progress or completed by 10:30-11:00.
Additional Policies and Information:
If a patient must be redrawn due to an error it is the responsibility of the patient care area to reorder the tests as needed and discuss the reason for the additional draw with the patient.
All phlebotomy team orders are considered routine. If a phlebotomy sample needs to be sent stat, it is the patient care area's responsibility to deliver that sample to the laboratory. All specimens with critical draw times needs to be communicated to the phlebotomy team either in person or via Epic secure chat.
Phlebotomy will bring their own supplies for scheduled draws. If the patient is added to the phlebotomist's list, the phlebotomist may request supplies from the patient care area. E.g. blood culture bottles and supplies.
The phlebotomy team does not draw patient specimens for research projects unless there are AM labs ordered as well.
The phlebotomy team will draw, but not deliver, samples that must be transported at body temperature. It is the patient care area's responsibility to deliver these specimens to the appropriate laboratory.
The phlebotomy team is not required to draw patients who are combative, uncooperative, or who refuse the phlebotomy procedure without an assistance from the patient care team.
If a patient is receiving a blood transfusion, blood specimens may be collected during the infusion from the other arm where blood is not being infused. If a platelet count or hemoglobin value is being measured, the standard time for a specimen to be collected is 1 hour post infusion.
If the patient has no collection sites on the arm opposite from a running IV, the phlebotomist will ask the RN to turn off the IV infusion and after a minimum of two minutes, the specimen will be collected below the IV.
All patients must have a bar coded University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics ID bracelet on. Any patient not wearing an ID bracelet must be identified by patient care area staff and a bar coded ID bracelet must be placed in a UI Hospitals and Clinics approved site before the patient can be drawn.
The phlebotomy team does not perform any type of line draw. It is the responsibility of the patient care area to draw these samples. Be sure that all of your line draws are marked as Nurse in EPIC docflow.
If patient refuses to be drawn, phlebotomist will communicate with RN in person or via Epic secure chat and let them know that the labs were not drawn due to patient refusal.
The phlebotomy team will draw any add labs by the units that is not a 0400 AM labs if staffing allows that. In cases of being short staffed, the phlebotomy team will make every effort to come back to the units and draw late ordered labs after finishing all 0400 AM labs across the hospital.