A resident in a large teaching hospital called the clinical chemistry section of the laboratory to get
the 10:00 a.m. glucose result of a patient who was a known diabetic. The technologist rechecked the name
and date with requisitions and samples previously received. The specimen was not in the laboratory, but
the technologist finally located the specimen after speaking with the patient’s nurse. The clotted blood
specimen was left in the pocket of the student nurse who had drawn the sample 4 hours prior to its
discovery. The sample was quickly transported to the laboratory, and the glucose value was obtained as
136 mg/dL (reference range 74 to 100 mg/dL). Prior to reporting the result, the technician checked with
the supervising technologist due to the unusual circumstances with respect to the specimen.