# A standard operating procedure — specimen receipt, step by step, under document control Recipe No. 33, Work and teams. From The know.sh Cookbook: https://know.sh/cookbook/sop-document Write the procedure people actually follow at the bench: document control where an auditor looks first, the method as numbered steps, the one hard call drawn as a flowchart, and a revision history that says why each rule changed. Share it on a link, and the bench reads the current revision. - For: a laboratory quality lead who owns the bench SOPs - You get: an SOP with document control, steps, a decision chart and its history - Time: an afternoon per procedure - Made with: Document, Section, Elements, Your AI assistant, Revisions, Public link ## How it works 1. **Start from what the bench does.** Give your assistant the current SOP and your bench notes. Ask for a document with sections for purpose, scope, safety, procedure, rejection criteria and revision history. 2. **Put document control on a card.** Ask for a card element at the top of the overview: SOP number, revision, owner, approver, effective date and next review. Update it with every revision you issue. 3. **Method as steps, the call as a flowchart.** Ask for the procedure as a steps element, one action per step, and the accept-or-reject decision as a flowchart. Check every safety line against your laboratory’s own rules. 4. **Keep the history as decisions.** Record each revision in a decisions element: what changed, why, and what it replaced. Share the SOP on a link so the bench always reads the current revision. ## Try this prompt Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model): > Using know.sh, turn the Procedure section of SOP-PA-014 into a steps element, one action per step with what to check. Then draw the accept-or-reject decision in the overview as a flowchart, top to bottom, one diamond per check: identifiers, tube and volume, stability time, ending in accession or rejection. Keep every safety sentence word for word. Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model): > Using know.sh, add a card element to the top of the overview of SOP-PA-014 with the SOP number, revision, owner, approver, effective date and next review. Then put a decisions element in Revision history: one entry per revision, with what changed, why, and what it superseded. ## Elements in the specimens Written as your assistant writes them through the know.sh MCP server. Each reads as plain words until you turn elements on (Account → Elements). Card, specimen 1: ```element card { "label": "Document control", "aside": "Controlled copy", "rows": [ { "term": "SOP number", "value": "SOP-PA-014" }, { "term": "Revision", "value": "6, superseding revision 5 of 3 March 2025" }, { "term": "Owner", "value": "Pre-analytical supervisor, R. Adeyemi" }, { "term": "Approved by", "value": "Laboratory manager" }, { "term": "Effective", "value": "1 October 2026" }, { "term": "Next review", "value": "1 October 2028" } ], "note": "Printed copies are uncontrolled. Check a printed revision number against this page before you rely on it." } ``` Flowchart, specimen 1: ```element flowchart { "caption": "Accept or reject: the checks at reception, in order", "description": "A specimen arrives. If its two identifiers do not match the request, it is rejected and recollected, unless it is irreplaceable, when the collector must confirm its identity in person before it goes on. It is then checked for the right tube and volume, and for being within its stability time. Failing either check means rejection; passing both, it is accessioned, barcoded and taken to the analyser bench.", "direction": "TD", "nodes": [ { "id": "arrive", "label": "Specimen arrives", "shape": "stadium" }, { "id": "ids", "label": "Two identifiers match?", "shape": "diamond" }, { "id": "irrep", "label": "Irreplaceable?", "shape": "diamond" }, { "id": "confirm", "label": "Collector confirms ID", "shape": "rectangle" }, { "id": "tube", "label": "Right tube and volume?", "shape": "diamond" }, { "id": "stable", "label": "Within stability time?", "shape": "diamond" }, { "id": "reject", "label": "Reject, ask to recollect", "shape": "rectangle", "emphasis": "key" }, { "id": "accession", "label": "Accession and barcode", "shape": "rectangle" }, { "id": "bench", "label": "To the analyser bench", "shape": "stadium" } ], "links": [ { "from": "arrive", "to": "ids", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "ids", "to": "tube", "label": "yes", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "ids", "to": "irrep", "label": "no", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "irrep", "to": "confirm", "label": "yes", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "irrep", "to": "reject", "label": "no", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "confirm", "to": "tube", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "tube", "to": "stable", "label": "yes", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "tube", "to": "reject", "label": "no", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "stable", "to": "accession", "label": "yes", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "stable", "to": "reject", "label": "no", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "accession", "to": "bench", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" } ] } ``` Steps, specimen 2: ```element steps { "label": "Receipt, one specimen at a time", "steps": [ { "title": "Gloves and a lab coat on", "body": "Treat every specimen as potentially infectious. A leaking or broken container stays in its bag and goes to the biological safety cabinet; never open it on the open bench." }, { "title": "Check how it travelled", "body": "Each specimen comes sealed in a biohazard bag, the request in the separate outer pocket. Anything that must travel cold, such as ammonia on ice, must arrive that way." }, { "title": "Match two identifiers", "body": "Full name and date of birth, or name and hospital number, on the tube must match the request exactly. A bed or room number is never an identifier." }, { "title": "Check the tube and its fill", "body": "Citrate tubes filled to the line; no clots in an EDTA tube for a full blood count; no potassium on a haemolysed sample, as haemolysis raises it falsely." }, { "title": "Accession and label", "body": "Register the request in the laboratory system, record the time received, and put the barcode on lengthwise without covering the patient’s name." }, { "title": "Record every rejection", "body": "Enter the reason in the laboratory system, phone the ward or clinic before your shift ends, and ask for a new specimen. Never relabel a tube." } ] } ``` Decisions, specimen 3: ```element decisions { "caption": "SOP-PA-014, revision history", "decisions": [ { "title": "Irreplaceable specimens (rev. 6)", "status": "decided", "date": "2026-09-18", "choice": "Accept a mislabelled irreplaceable specimen only once the collector confirms its identity in person and signs for it", "reason": "Spinal fluid and tissue cannot be taken again. Rejecting them outright cost patients a second procedure; every exception is logged and reviewed monthly.", "alternatives": [ { "option": "Reject every mislabelled specimen" }, { "option": "Confirm identity by phone" } ] }, { "title": "No relabelling at the bench (rev. 5)", "status": "decided", "date": "2025-03-03", "choice": "A mislabelled specimen is rejected and recollected; nobody corrects a label in the laboratory", "reason": "Correcting labels hid identification errors from the wards that made them. Three near misses in 2024 traced back to it." }, { "title": "Correcting labels at reception (rev. 4)", "status": "superseded", "date": "2023-06-12", "choice": "Reception may correct a misspelt name on a tube", "reason": "Meant to save recollections for small errors.", "supersededBy": "No relabelling at the bench (rev. 5)" }, { "title": "Coagulation samples by pneumatic tube", "status": "open", "choice": "Allow, once the tube system is validated for them", "reason": "Validation results are due in December. Until then coagulation samples come to reception by hand." } ] } ```