Queen Mary Hospital announces missing specimen incident
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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The spokesperson for Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) made the following announcement today (August 20) regarding a missing specimen incident:
A female patient with a renal mass had a CT scan and an ultrasound guided biopsy at QMH on August 16. The biopsy was to collect a tissue specimen of her kidney for examination, which helps the doctor diagnose the disease and formulate a subsequent treatment plan.
According to the medical record, the specimen was successfully collected by a radiologist during the biopsy procedures. After checking the patient’s identity by the healthcare staff, the specimen bottle was labelled with the patient’s information for identification. The bottle was then sealed in a plastic bag for sending to the pathology laboratory for examination.
On the next day, a staff member of the Pathology Department discovered that no specimen was found in the specimen bottle. The staff member reported the case to the supervisor and relevant departments. An immediate search was conducted but to no avail.
QMH met the patient concerned and her relatives yesterday (August 19) and today to explain the incident and express an apology. The healthcare team has already arranged another biopsy, alongside another examination of the patient in the coming week to confirm the nature of her renal mass. The hospital will closely follow up, monitor the patient’s condition and render necessary assistance.
The hospital management is very concerned about the incident and has reported it to the Hospital Authority Head Office via the Advance Incident Reporting System. QMH will look into the sequence of events and identify the root cause of the incident to make a recommendation.