Patient brought a steel tumbler for their 24hr urine collection… yeah, we couldn't use it
Had this happen recently — patient showed up with a steel tumbler instead of the actual collection container. Straight up not usable, no matter how tempting it is to just "make it work."
A tumbler isn't sterile, isn't graduated for accurate volume, and depending on the material can even react with the sample — all of which throws off the diagnostic result. For a 24hr urine collection especially, accurate volume tracking is critical, so a random household container just isn't an option. Had to have them redo the whole collection with the proper container instead of risking a skewed report.
Found a solid breakdown on why proper containers actually matter for sample integrity if anyone's curious: https://nasmeddiagnostic.com/insights/safe-urine-collection-for-more-reliable-diagnostics/











