When Equipment Fails Mid-Run

Part of Clinical Laboratory (LAB) Training: Processing to the Laboratory Manual.

About 2 minutes. Free, in your language, no account needed.

The decision is about the sample, not the machine

A centrifuge that stops partway through is an equipment problem. What matters for the trial is what happened to the sample inside it.

Answer that first.

Establish what actually occurred

How far into the spin did it stop? Did the temperature hold? How long did the sample sit before you noticed?

If you do not know, say you do not know. An honest gap is assessable. A confident guess is not, and it is the kind of statement that unravels under questioning.

Do not simply restart the clock

Re-spinning may be acceptable, or it may not. It depends on the analyte, on the total time since collection, and on what the manual says.

A second full spin after a partial one is not the same as one correct spin. For some preparations it damages the sample.

Check the manual. If the manual does not cover it, ask the central laboratory before you act, and record the answer.

The stability clock keeps running

Equipment failure does not pause the processing window. If the manual requires plasma separated within sixty minutes of collection, that limit still applies while you are troubleshooting.

Watch the clock while you deal with the machine. If the window will be missed, that is now the more important problem.

Process what you can

If one sample is affected and others are not, deal with the affected one and keep the rest moving inside their windows.

Do not hold a whole run because one tube is in question.

Two records, not one

The equipment record. Fault, time, action taken, and the return to service. That is your laboratory's quality system.

The study record. What happened to these samples, and whether the protocol's requirements were still met. That is the deviation record, and it goes to the sponsor.

They are different documents for different readers. Completing one does not complete the other, and assuming it does is a common gap.