• Education & Research
• Patients
• Medical Professionals
• Medical Professional Guidelines
• Laboratory 101
• Test Menus & services
• Blood Collection & Labeling
• Information Required on Specimens & Requisitions
• Site Selection
• Collection Supplies
• Needle Positioning
• Order of Draw & Transfer
• Factors Affecting Results
• Blood Cultures
• Pre-Transfusion Medicine Collections
• Urine Collection Guidelines
• Blood Collection Guidelines
• CSF Collection Guidelines
• Pre-Transfusion Testing Specimen Collection Training Guide
• Medical Interpretation Guidelines
• Anatomic Pathology Specimen Collection
• Cytopathology Specimen Collection Guidelines
• Body Fluid Collection Guidelines
• Useful Links
• Research
• Publications
• Requests for Data

Blood Collection Supplies

Tourniquet

• Tourniquets should be placed 8 - 10 cm above the puncture site (exception: pediatric patients and smaller arms).
• Tourniquets should not be left on the patient for more than 1 minute.

Multi-sample Needles

• Sterile, single use, double ended multiple sample needles, Eclipse safety guard, packaged in a plastic case.  These needles are used with the Vacutainer system for the majority of collections.
• The higher the gauge number of a needle, the smaller the bore (opening) it has:  available in 21G (green) and 22G (black).
• Routinely 21G needles are used for faster tube filling rates, and 22G needles are used on smaller veins.

Butterfly Needles

• Winged infusion sets with a safety device.
• Used for blood culture collections.
• Used on difficult veins such as hand or foot veins.
• May also be used for syringe collection.

Needles (Syringe)

• Sterile, single use needles used with a syringe for blood collection. 
• Used for smaller veins that may collapse with Vacutainer collection.   
• Samples are transferred from the syringe into blood collection tubes.

Vacutainer Holders

• Reusable holders are used for Vacutainer system collections.
• Larger sizes available for blood culture collections.

Antiseptics

• 70% isopropyl alcohol is used for routine blood collections. 
• PVP Iodine is used for blood culture collections in combination with 70% isopropyl alcohol.

Collection Supplies: Safety and Notes

• Standard precautions must be observed for all blood collections.
• Re-capping of waste / used needles is against the law in Alberta.
• Vacutainer/multisample needle collection is preferred. Use of syringes with needles and butterfly sets is discouraged due to higher incidence of needle-stick injuries.
• CLS does not accept specimens in syringes with needles still attached.
• Laboratory Assistants are not authorized under the Criminal Code of Canada to collect specimens for law enforcement.
• CLS does not collect, handle or process blood gas specimens.

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