1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to devices used for collecting specimens for medical analysis. More particularly, it relates to a urine specimen collecting device that divides the urine into two separate containers at the time of collection.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Urine specimens are routinely collected in small sterile cups if a culture is to be grown or in a nonsterile cup if a urinalysis has been ordered. Thus, whenever a specimen is going to be subjected to culturing by one lab and urinalysis by another lab, the specimen container must be sterile. After collection, a first amount of the collected urine is transferred to a sterile container for culturing and a second amount is transferred to a container that need not be sterile for urinalysis. Typically, the containers to which the urine is transferred are test tubes, also known as centrifuge tubes.
Both transfers of the urine are accomplished by pouring part of the contents of the collection receptacle into the centrifuge tubes. The initial collection receptacle is then discarded; one of the two centrifuge tubes is transported to a microbiology lab for culturing and the other one is transported to a hematology lab for urinalysis.
There are a number of drawbacks to the above-described, widely practiced procedure. For example, the individual transferring the urine from the initial collection container to the centrifuge tubes may spill the urine onto his or her hands and thus suffer exposure to possible disease organisms. Moreover, the handling may introduce contaminating organisms into the specimen, producing false positives when various procedures are performed. Furthermore, when the contents of one cup are poured into two additional cups, still another transfer will be required if the specimen is to be centrifuged.
Thus, there is a need for an improved means for dividing the contents of a urine collection container into two separate containers, and for eliminating an additional step of emptying those separate containers into centrifuge tubes, but at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in this art how such improved means could be provided, in view of the prior art when considered as a whole. The absence of an obvious solution to the problem is apparent from the very longstanding practice of following the prior art separation technique described above.