Specimen labeling and patient identification

Every specimen error the CCMA tests reduces to one question: at what moment did the sample stop being provably connected to the person it came from? The rules exist to make that moment impossible, which is why the timing of the label matters more than its contents.

How many identifiers	Two, and both are actively obtained from the patient and matched to the requisition (The Joint Commission NPSG 01.01.01)
What never counts as an identifier	The room number or the bed location — they identify a place, not a person
Asking the question correctly	Open-ended. 'What is your name and date of birth?' rather than 'Are you Mrs Garcia?', because a confused or hard-of-hearing patient will agree to almost anything
When the tube is labeled	Immediately after collection, in the presence of the patient, so the specimen is never separated from its identity (CLSI)
Why prelabeling is wrong	A tube labeled before the draw can end up holding a different patient's blood, and nothing downstream can detect it
An unlabeled specimen	Is not salvageable by labeling it later from memory. It is recollected
Chain of custody	A separate, stricter documentation trail used where the specimen may become legal evidence — every transfer is signed for
If the requisition and the patient disagree	Stop. The discrepancy is resolved before collection, not after

Where the point is lost: The recurring wrong answer on this topic is any option that fixes a labeling problem after the fact. If the specimen's identity was ever in doubt, the answer is to recollect it — convenience never outranks traceability.