In the news: wrong result lands mother in jail, child in protective services

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

AS if we don't have enough evidence that laboratory test results are vital, critical, and have real impact on our patients, we have a tragic story out of Detroit.

Detroit Medical Center ran a test on a 5-year-old child and it came back positive for cocaine.

On this basis, the mother was jailed, the child was placed in child protective services.

36 hours later, both were reunited. There had been an error in the lab result.

See more details here: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2018/05/5-year-old_was_not_high_on_coc.html

Lab tests matter. Quality matters even more.