Evaluation of analytical errors in the clinical chemistry laboratory of Songklanagarind hospital: A 5-year experience
Main Article Content
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate errors occurring in the laboratory testing process of the clinical chemistry laboratory, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University. We retrospectively analyzed records of error and inconsistent incidence reports of the laboratory covering five years from 2011 to 2015. The errors were analyzed separately for the pre-analytical phase, analytical phase and post-analytical phase. Frequency and percentage of errors were calculated, and the process was evaluated by the Six Sigma scale. During 5 years, 1,954,066 samples were processed and overall error rates were 0.23% (4,516 samples). The error rates in pre-analytical phase, analytical phase and post-analytical phase were 0.16% (3,157 samples), 0.01% (108 samples), and 0.06% (1,251 samples), respectively. The highest error rate of pre-analytical phase was incomplete registration/no stat label attached (913 samples) and that for analytical phase was clotted sample (47 samples ) whereas in post-analytical phase was incomplete notes (658 samples). The performance assessed by the Six Sigma scale for pre-analytical, analytical and post-analytical phase was 4.50, 5.40 and 4.80, respectively. The scores were within the acceptant limit of >4.25, >3.85 and >4.80, respectively. This study provides clear evidence that the majority of errors in the laboratory testing process occurred in the pre-analytical phase.