OLYMPIA – Stung by revelations of major problems at its toxicology lab in recent years, the Washington State Patrol on Thursday said it has accepted dozens of changes recommended by auditors.

“Our goal is to make a good laboratory better,” Chief John Batiste said. “These are solutions that are doable in the real world, and we can implement them.”

The lab has been a source of embarrassment for the State Patrol in recent years, sometimes threatening to affect criminal trials.

Last fall, attorneys for Fred Russell, a drunken driver who killed three fellow Washington State University students in a 2001 wreck, called one of the patrol’s own auditors and asked her to describe what she’d found at the lab in 2004.

Sgt. Patricia Lankford, who monitors evidence-handling by the State Police, described missing records and evidence-storage problems.

Test tube caps were mixed up, she said, and blood and urine stored in test tubes – including Russell’s blood sample – were wrongly destroyed.

“The further into the audit I got, the more discrepancies I would see,” Lankford testified at the trial in October. She said she clashed with then-lab manager Ann Marie Gordon, who resigned last summer after repeatedly complaining about inadequate staffing and equipment.

Additional audits were launched last year after it was discovered that some breathalyzer test results were false. The errors discovered in the recent audits, State Patrol spokesman Robert Calkins said, involved record-keeping, like writing “caffeine and caffeine” on a drug test result instead of “caffeine and nicotine.”

“There was never an allegation of bad testing,” Calkins said.

Gov. Chris Gregoire has included money for more lab staff in her 2008 budget request.

Among changes in the wake of the most recent audits:

“ Scientists performing tests will sign out samples and sign them back in when done.

“ Measures to increase accuracy in records.

“ Lab employees are getting weekly training now.

Of 39 changes recommended by auditors, Batiste said, 23 are in place.

The rest, he said, will be done by summer.