Medical Laboratory request form completeness, associated factors and the financial impact of non - communicated results in two public hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2018-02
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Addis Ababa Universty
Abstract
Background: Laboratory request forms provide information about the laboratory test being requested for. It carry demographic data and other information such as location of patient, laboratory number, doctor’s name, signature, telephone number. If one of this information is missed it may lead to laboratory errors. Appropriately designed and properly completed request forms are vital for quality laboratory work and patient management.
Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate request forms submitted to the laboratory to determine their completeness, associated factor and the financial impact of non-communicated results in two public hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Methods: Cross-sectional study design was employed .Laboratory request forms submitted to the laboratory from June 12 to July 11, 2017 at Ras Desta Damtew Memorial Hospital and St Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College were collected, reviewed and assessed for completeness using data collection sheet .Non-communicated requested results we reviewed using laboratory results that were not collected from the laboratory after one week from date of request. Factors contributed to improper completion and failed collection were assessed by asking clinicians using pre-structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 24 and excel sheet. Nominal /categorical data was described in number and percentage. Data were presented in tables and figures.
Results; A total of nine thousand six hundred ninety one request forms were studied. Our assessment revealed that, name and laboratory investigation were written 100% in all requests. Age and gender were missed on 7.5% and 8.2% of the forms received at RDDMH laboratory while 2.6% and 2% of the forms received at SPHMMC respectively. One fifth (20.5%) of test results were uncollected and 74 (12.0 %) of them were CBC and an estimated 14,063 birr (44 %) [168756.00 birr annually] was lost from monthly RDDMH budget.
Conclusion: Our finding showed that the quality of test request forms in both hospitals do not to the level of expected standards. Clinician’s awareness is some what low and efforts should be made to improve communication between clinicians and laboratory personnel in order to improve the service provision and save costs due to uncommunicated results..
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Keywords
Lab request, Incompleteness, Financial impact, cost