NDLI: Is it safe to have a laboratory test?

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Boone, D. Joe
Copyright Year	2004
Abstract	A recent US Institute of Medicine report indicated that up to 98,000 deaths and more than 1 million injuries occur each year in the United States due to medical errors. These include diagnostic errors, such as an “error or delay in diagnosis, failure to employ indicated tests” and the “use of outmoded tests.” Laboratory tests provide up to 80% of the information used by physicians to make important medical decisions, therefore it is important to determine how often laboratory testing mistakes occur, whether they cause patient harm, where they are most likely to occur in the testing process, and how to prevent them from occurring. A review of the literature and a US Quality Institute Conference in 2003 indicates that errors in laboratory medicine occur most often in the pre-analytical and post-analytical steps in the testing process, but most of the quality improvement efforts focus on improving the analytical process. Measures must be developed and employed to reduce the potential for mistakes in laboratory medicine, including better indicators for the quality of laboratory service. Users of laboratory services must be linked with the laboratory’s information system to assist them with decisions about test ordering, patient preparation, and test interpretation. Quality assessment efforts need to be expanded beyond external quality assessment programs to encompass the detection of non-analytical mistakes and improving communication between the users of and providers of laboratory services. The actual number of mistakes in laboratory testing is not fully recognized, because no widespread process is in place to either determine how often mistakes occur or to systematically eliminate sources of error. We also tend to focus on mistakes that result in adverse events, not the near misses that cause no observable harm. The users of laboratory services must become aware of where testing mistakes can occur and actively participate in designing processes to prevent mistakes. Most importantly, healthcare institutions need to adopt a culture of safety, which is implemented at all levels of the organization. This includes establishing closer links between providers of laboratory services and others in the healthcare delivery system. This was the theme of a 2003 Quality Institute Conference aimed at “making the laboratory a key partner in patient safety.” Plans to create a permanent public–private partnership, called the Institute for Quality in Laboratory Medicine, whose mission is to promote improvements in the use of laboratory tests and laboratory services are underway.
Starting Page	5
Ending Page	9
Page Count	5
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09491775
Journal	Accreditation and Quality Assurance
Volume Number	10
Issue Number	1-2
e-ISSN	14320517
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2004-09-18
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Medical errors Laboratory mistakes Quality Institute Institute for Quality in Laboratory Medicine Patient safety Improving laboratory services
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Chemistry Instrumentation Chemical Engineering Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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