Best practices when performing a phlebotomy procedure involve the following factors:

• Planning ahead
• Patient identification
• Selecting an appropriate location
• Quality control
• Standards for quality care for patients and health workers, which includes:
  • Availability of appropriate supplies
  • Availability of personal protective equipment
  • Avoidance of contaminated equipment
  • Appropriate training
  • Special considerations related to patients
  • Quality of laboratory sampling

Phlebotomy errors may cause serious harm to patients, so it is essential to establish and practice quality control when performing a venipuncture or capillary puncture on any patient.

For this case study you are to research methods of quality control and then in a properly formatted APA Word document describe how a medical assistant would promote and practice these methods to ensure a positive outcome when performing a phlebotomy procedure.

Your written case study should include:

• A definition of quality control
• The steps you would take to plan ahead for a phlebotomy procedure
• How to properly identify the patient
• Description on how to select an appropriate location for a venipuncture and a capillary puncture
• How to obtain a quality blood sample (i.e., non-hemolized)
• At least one special considerations related to patient care

Submit your completed assignment by following the directions linked below. Please check the Course Calendar for specific due dates.

Save your assignment as a Microsoft Word document. (Mac users, please remember to append the “.docx” extension to the filename.) The name of the file should be your first initial and last name, followed by an underscore and the name of the assignment, and an underscore and the date. An example is shown below:

Jstudent_exampleproblem_101504