Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street: Jan. 9

Quest's Bad Tests

Is the Quest in Quest Diagnostics(DGX Quote) short for "questionable"?

Quest Diagnostics acknowledged it provided potentially inaccurate results over the last two years to thousands of people who had their vitamin D levels tested, The New York Times reported Thursday. The nation's largest medical laboratory admitted that it has been sending letters to doctors since last October listing the patients who might have received erroneous test results and is offering free retests.

A Quest spokesman says that problems in a few laboratories led to the questionable results on some tests performed in 2007 and 2008. The errors potentially could have led a number of patients to forgo vitamin D supplements that they may have needed.

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient needed for healthy bones. Human beings produce Vitamin D when they are exposed to sunlight, and it's also found in foods like eggs, fortified milk and salmon. Vitamin D testing has grown in recent years as studies suggested that inadequate levels may boost the risk of heart attacks, bone weakness and cancer.

Quest's test inaccuracies were first disclosed by the Dark Report, a newsletter for pathologists and lab technicians. Robert Michel, editor of the Dark Report, said it was the largest recall of test results he has heard since he started in the field in 1991.

"It's an extraordinary event when a fully accredited and licensed laboratory produces such a large number of inaccurate results, and it seems not to have recognized the problem for 18 months," Michel told TheStreet.com. "That's a long time to miss something this big."

We here at the Five Dumbest Research Lab aren't scientists, but checking a patient's blood for Vitamin D doesn't seem all that difficult a task.

Here's a test for the brass at Quest Diagnostics: Can you say 'boneheads?'

Dumb-o-meter score: 75 -- Quest flunked this test. Miserably.