A venous blood sample may be required for any number of reasons.  Any medical professional trained in the process of venous blood sampling is required to perform the venapuncture upon request of a law enforcement officer conducting an investigation.  No order is required!   It is assumed that you already know how to draw a venous blood sample.  If you need a refresher on that; contact your training officer or department’s training division right away.

The law enforcement officer (LEO) requesting the blood sample will and must provide you with the vacutainers and tube sleeve with a needle or any part of a blood specimen collection kit.  Use only the contents of the supplied kit to draw the sample and then return the filled vacutainer tubes and the kit to the LEO.  Of course there’s paperwork for you to complete…

The kit that will be given to you by the LEO contains everything you will need to draw the sample.  Be sure to use the iodine prep to cleanse the site, never use an alcohol prep to cleanse for a legal blood sample like this one.  You will notice that an alcohol prep is not supplied in this kit; only iodine for that purpose.

The vacutainer tubes, sleeve and needle are contained in a small box which is doubles as a tube holder.  The LEO uses this box to ship the filled tubes.  If you are given the entire kit, or the tube box-holder and contents; return the tubes to the box-holder when you have filled them.

Follow the instructions on the blue sheet precisely.  Everything you need to know is on this instruction sheet.

Click here to see the entire instruction sheet and consent / report sheet.

You will be using the vacutainer tubes, tube sleeve and needle, the blue instruction sheet and the red and white consent/collection report sheet.  The LEO does the rest.

The red and white sheet from the kit includes a consent form that you are required to complete.  Have the subject (patient?) sign the consent form section after you have printed their name, the date and time.  If they refuse to sign; let the LEO deal with it.  Click here to see the entire instruction sheet and consent / report sheet.

Have a witness present during the blood draw process; they’ll have to sign the witness statement on the red and white report sheet. 

Fill both tubes completely with blood and carefully and slowly invert the tubes several times to mix the anticoagulant powder.  Don’t shake them!

After you have drawn the blood, fill in the information on the “blood collector’s report” section. 

If the LEO gave you the entire kit, return the tubes to the box-holder and return the entire kit to the LEO.  The LEO is responsible for labeling and sealing the kit after you have drawn the blood and filled out the papers.  Don’t use the zip-lock bag or the small absorbent paper in the bag; they have to put the tube box-holder in that bag along with the absorbent paper for transport of the kit.

Hand the blood samples to the LEO and properly dispose of the needle and vacutainer tube sleeve.

The tube sleeve needle is equipped with a needle guard that swings up over the needle and latches over it to provide some protection during disposal.

The only items you should have after completing the blood draw is an empty idodine prep packet, the tube sleeve and needle.  Everything else goes back to the LEO.  It’s important to hand the filled tubes directly to the requesting LEO.  Don’t leave them somewhere for pick-up or have someone else deliver them to the LEO.

Charge the patient the usual treat no transport fee if you’re not transporting.

* 9/20/07 Revision: a call report is not required and the patient is not charged for this procedure.