• Bonnie Cole, Jane A Dickerson, Mark L Graber, Corinne R Fantz, Michael Laposata, Kerm Henriksen, Michael L Astion, and Paul Epner.
• Department of Laboratories, Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle, WA, United States; Department of Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States. Electronic address: bonnie.cole2@seattlechildrens.org.
• Clin. Chim. Acta. 2014 Jul 1; 434: 1-5.

ObjectiveErrors associated with laboratory testing can cause significant patient harm. Sendout testing refers to tests sent by a primary lab to a reference lab when testing is unavailable at the primary lab. Sendout testing is particularly high risk for patient harm, due to many factors including increased hand-offs, manual processes, and complexity associated with rare, low-volume tests. No published prospective tools exist for sendout risk assessment.MethodsA novel prospective tool was developed to assess risk of diagnostic errors involving laboratory sendout testing. This tool was successfully piloted at nine sites.ResultsMarked diversity was noted among survey respondents, particularly in the sections on quality metrics and utilization management. Of note, most sites had committees who managed rules for test ordering, but few places reported enforcing these rules. Only one site claimed to routinely measure the frequency clinicians failed to retrieve test results. An evaluation of the tool indicated that it was both useful and easy to use.ConclusionsThis tool could be used by other laboratories to identify the areas of highest risk to patients, which in turn may guide them in focusing their quality improvement efforts and resources.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

17 keywords...

hide…