RESUMO
Background: Laboratory diagnostics is the fast-growing field which contributes 70% of clinical diagnosis. Laboratory information has a profound impact on patient diagnosis. Research has demonstrated most of the laboratory errors occur in the pre-analytical phase. Incorrect and incomplete filling of information on the laboratory request forms can significantly impact the quality of laboratory results, and it affects patient outcome and resources. We, therefore, evaluated the extent of incomplete laboratory forms in our center.Methods: The study was a retrospective study conducted on all request forms received over 1 month from June 15, 2018, to July 15, 2018, in the Clinical Pathology Department of ESI hospital, Coimbatore, during working hours were analyzed for the frequency of incomplete data.Results: Only the patient’s name appeared in all the forms. Consultant in charge of requesting laboratory tests (99%) was the most omitted parameter. No clinical details or location/ward details of the patient was provided in 90.7% and 7% of the cases. Age and gender did not appear in 21.9% and 22%, respectively. Date of request, doctor’s signature, and hospital number were missing on 8.4%, 27.6%, and 4.4%, respectively.Conclusions: The study has demonstrated the level completion of laboratory request forms was suboptimal. This may be responsible for many pre-analytical errors. There should be closer interaction between clinicians and laboratory physician to improve the quality of laboratory services and resource management.
RESUMO
Background: The need and importance of adequately completing radiology request forms cannot be over emphasized. Thus, this study investigated the pattern in which radiology request forms are completed by clinicians in a tertiary health center.Methods: A total of two hundred and fourteen (214) samples of request forms were randomly selected from records of the Radiology Department of the Federal Medical Center, BirninKebbi, Nigeria. The request forms comprises of requests from various departments within the hospital. All the data collected from the request forms where entered into Microsoft excel and items/fields on the form were examined.Results: From this study, it was observed that out of the total 214 forms collected, 209 (97.7%) of the forms were not adequately completed with only 5 (2.3%) fully completed. Other items on the request form that were also least completed were the referring physicians name (2.3%), patients’ full address (2.3%) and patients age (62.6%).Conclusion: We conclude that radiology request forms are inadequately completed as seen from the present study, thus the need to enlighten the referring physicians on the need to adequately and properly complete radiology request forms as this is vital in improving the accuracy of radiologists report / interpretation.