American Medical Certification Association (AMCA) Phlebotomy Practice Exam

What is the best practice for a phlebotomist to ensure patient safety?

1. Always wear gloves

2. Use a sharps container

3. Verify patient identity

4. Keep equipment sterilized

The correct answer is: Verify patient identity

Verifying patient identity is crucial in phlebotomy for ensuring patient safety. This practice helps prevent medical errors, such as drawing blood from the wrong patient or administering the wrong tests. Confirming the patient's identity using two unique identifiers—typically their name and date of birth—addresses the need for accuracy in healthcare settings. This process is vital not only for the safety of the patient but also for maintaining the integrity of the medical records and test results. While wearing gloves, using sharps containers, and keeping equipment sterilized are all important practices to ensure safety and infection control, they do not directly confirm that the procedure is being performed on the correct individual. Thus, while these other practices contribute to overall patient safety and can prevent potential infections and injuries, verifying patient identity stands out as the best practice specifically for preventing errors related to misidentification.