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I've read a few articles about mistakes being made within IVF labs and the wrong sperm being used to fertilise the egg or the wrong embryo being transferred. What controls are in place within a lab to prevent such mistakes and do you think such controls are working well across all labs in the US? Is it easy for a mistake to happen and how often do you think events like these actually happen? Thanks!
I wrote a post about this on my blog which you can read at http://fertilitylabinsider.com/2010/05/lab-mistakes/. The short version is that in a good lab there are many layers of controls in place to prevent lab mix-ups. Think about airplane crashes. When they happen, it's usually because several systems failed because redundancies are in place. Of course, I have heard of and seen labs in which people are in denial and don't have enough safeguards in place or they get busy and take shortcuts. That is a recipe for disaster. I think we could do a lot more to prevent errors. Other countries require that labs are licensed and there are more standardized expectations for safe protocols. Here in the US, interpreting standards is left to the clinics. So to be an accredited lab, you might have to prove to an inspector that you "have a system in place to prevent errors". Of course, you may have designed a very poor system to prevent errors so that's where the variability comes in. The inspector can't usually tell you how it safety prevention must be done because there is no one right way that is agreed upon that the inspector can enforce You should straight out ask the lab director or practice director what systems are in place to prevent mixups. It's a fair question. If the answers are vague or don't make sense to you, maybe it's time to look at another program. As far as how often do these happen? Probably more frequently than plane crashes. Many cases are quietly settled out of court and don't become public so there is no way to get a true count. In hospital systems, there are protocols in place for providers to report errors to patients and also to risk analysts to identify what went wrong and design protocols to prevent future incidents. Hospital protocols require that patients must be informed of the mistake and be offered a plan to limit the harm to patients after the fact and also mediate a settlement. Hospitals have relatively deep legal pockets and expect some mistakes to happen. A similar expectation of transparency may not be present in the independent clinics where a mistake could put them out of business. Unfortunately, because there is variability between clinics, it is up to the patient to be informed and interview their clinic providers so they can be reassured that the clinic has sufficient protocols in place prevent errors.
This is great information- thank you so much. I have always wondered about this.