Biochemia Medica, Vol. 26 No. 2, 2016.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.11613/BM.2016.027
Additional technician tasks and turnaround time in the clinical Stat laboratory.
Maria Salinas
; Clinical Laboratory, Hospital Universitario de San Juan, San Juan de Alicante, Spain
Maite López-Garrigós
; Clinical Laboratory, Hospital Universitario de San Juan, San Juan de Alicante, Spain
Emilio Flores
; Clinical Laboratory, Hospital Universitario de San Juan, San Juan de Alicante, Spain
Maria Leiva-Salinas
; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pathology, Universidad Miguel Hernandez, Elche, Spain
Rosa Lillo
; Clinical Laboratory, Hospital Universitario de San Juan, San Juan de Alicante, Spain
Carlos Leiva-Salinas
; Department of Radiology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
Abstract
Introduction: Many additional tasks in the Stat laboratory (SL) increase the workload. It is necessary to control them because they can affect the service provided by the laboratory. Our aim is to calculate these tasks, study their evolution over a 10 year period, and compare turnaround times (TAT) in summer period to the rest of the year.
Materials and methods: Additional tasks were classified as “additional test request” and “additional sample”. We collected those incidences from the laboratory information system (LIS), and calculated their evolution over time. We also calculated the monthly TAT for troponin for Emergency department (ED) patients, as the difference between the verification and LIS registration time. A median time of 30 minutes was our indicator target. TAT results and tests workload in summer were compared to the rest of the year.
Results: Over a 10-year period, the technologists in the SL performed 51,385 additional tasks, a median of 475 per month. The workload was significantly higher during the summer (45,496 tests) than the rest of the year (44,555 tests) (P = 0.019). The troponin TAT did not show this variation between summer and the rest of the year, complying always with our 30 minutes indicator target.
Conclusion: The technicians accomplished a significant number of additional tasks, and the workload kept increasing over the period of 10 years. That did not affect the TAT results.
Keywords
medical laboratory personnel; quality indicators; health care
Hrčak ID:
161694
URI
Publication date:
15.6.2016.
Visits: 1.285 *