*"Within the lab"... it is the lab technicians who call this phenomenon *sink testing*.*
Even though this is not something "new" it is probably running rampant now more than ever. "Sink Testing" It was in the 1970s that my husband was a Chief Laboratory Technician with his own laboratory in a medium-sized hospital. In other words... all the other technicians worked under him and he trained them and he was the head honcho. So he was the one doing and overlooking all laboratory work including bloodwork, urinalysis, etc. etc. etc.. On so many occasions he would see other lazy technicians who were simply too lazy to say, for example, run the test for ordered blood gases (to be run on a person which is very important) ... and simply just dump the blood *down the* *sink* and ONLY write down numbers (just flat out not doing their job). In other words, the test never took place! Of course my husband had a boss and there was one occasion when my husband saw an equal colleague doing this all the time. He reported it to his boss who would not, or cared not, to do anything about it. So, with my husband's set of ethics and morals he just told them that he was going to report it and did not want to work in such a facility and moved on. I should mention here that my husband worked in several hospitals in several states as he was going through school and so on. So he has seen this many times in many places. But the point I want to make is that I know unequivocally that more and more and more of this is going on still today. Cuz of lazy, incompetent lab techs. Instead of doing a urine culture, as another example, a technician might just do a simple urinalysis or just "sink test" it which means pouring it down the drain and just writing down the name of any bug OR that the test was negative. Just plain laziness but so detrimental to so many patients! I have experienced the latter several times within the last year. I know that I experienced it firsthand but proving it is another matter. After I had my big bladder stones removed... I still had some systemic (fever) infections and after 25 years of being a quad... I KNOW exactly how my body responds to a bad UTI .... when it involves a fever I shake and shake and shake until I think I am going to die. I of course immediately send a urine specimen to the laboratory. Over the last year and a half it has been taken to my urologist's office and they send it out to the laboratory that they use for culture and sensitivities. Three or four different times the results came back negative! I have a high fever, the most awful looking urine, and the tests come back negative? I don't think so but I can't prove it! Since I had the antibiotics on hand (that the bug in question fortunately responded to!) I took them and treated myself. I had no choice unless I wanted to put myself in grave danger. The other problem is that the doctor begins not to believe you and they do not have the spine to question the laboratory. God help everyone! It's a nasty medical world out there... Lori C4/5 complete quad, 28 years post Tucson, AZ
