Quality and Safety

At Genesis Healthcare Partners, Quality and Safety are at the forefront of our innovative approaches to healthcare.

Introducing Know Error® Biopsies

A prostate biopsy evaluation plays a critical role in the confirmation of the presence of cancer. Genesis Healthcare is the only San Diego prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment center to utilize the know error® system for prostate biopsies. This system uses bar coding, forensic principles and your own DNA to ensure that, when your lab results arrive, the results match you.

How Do You Know Error® Biopsies Work?

Before your biopsy procedure, your urologist simply swabs the inside of your cheek to obtain a sample of your DNA. This swab is sent to an independent forensic DNA lab. Tissue samples obtained from your biopsy are placed in bar coded specimen containers from the biopsy kit and sent to the pathology lab for evaluation. If the biopsy results come back positive, the forensics lab performs a DNA Specimen Provenance Assignment (DSPA) to compare your biopsy tissue to the DNA sample. These simple steps virtually eliminates patient misidentification due to what’s called Specimen Provenance Complications (SPC) that can arise due to incidences of specimen transposition, foreign cell contamination and other occur errors that may occur during the complex biopsy evaluation laboratory process necessary to properly evaluate prostate tissue.

The know error® system allows you and your Genesis physicians to discuss your treatment options knowing with absolute certainty that your lab results are confirmed with a positive DNA match. No need to re-biopsy to confirm results.

This is just one of the many innovative approaches that makes Genesis Healthcare, San Diego’s first choice for safety, personal care and minimally invasive treatment options in prostate cancer care.