NurseWeek|HealthWeek|Fallout from phlebotomist's alleged improper lab techniques

Improper lab techniques for drawing blood cause scare

Posted 5-3-99
By Megan Flaherty

The disclosure last month that a phlebotomist at a Palo Alto clinical laboratory reused disposable blood-drawing needles has prompted widespread anxiety among patients and disbelief among healthcare professionals.

A colleague reported seeing Elaine Giorgi, a lab technician at the SmithKline Beecham lab in Palo Alto, reuse a needle on March 22. During the investigation that followed, Giorgi admitted repeatedly reusing needles—after washing them with hydrogen peroxide—to draw blood from patients whose veins were hard to access. More than 3,600 patients who received blood tests during the phlebotomist’s nearly five years at the lab were advised to undergo blood tests for AIDS and hepatitis.

State prosecutors, citing Giorgi’s "cavalier" disregard for public safety, obtained a temporary court order last week, forbidding Giorgi from drawing blood or performing injections of any kind. Under terms of the order, Giorgi also may not label any medical specimens, prepare medical records, or even take a patient’s blood pressure.

"This was an incomprehensible event in my mind," said Helen McDonnell, RN, a certified infection control nurse who is director of nursing and infection control at Pacific Coast Hospital and Clinics in San Francisco. "I can’t imagine how anybody would think it was OK to reuse a needle. We emphasize thorough OSHA training at all nursing and lab sites that reuse of a needle would put the nurse or technician at risk as well as other patients. Certainly hydrogen peroxide is not going to be sufficient to disinfect or sterilize any reusable products."

In the weeks after the initial disclosure, witnesses reported that Giorgi also reused slides and mislabeled blood samples. It was also reported that the technician did not always wear gloves.

Stanford University Medical Center sent some of its "spillover" patients to the SmithKline Beecham lab for testing, although the majority of patients went to Stanford’s own blood center, said Melodie Jackson, a spokesperson in the medical center’s office of communications. SmithKline Beecham and Stanford are determining which patients were tested by the technician and are alerting them, she said. It’s still unclear whether patients enrolled in university research studies had their blood drawn at the lab and whether such a situation would jeopardize research findings, she said.