Laboratory specimen rejection rate and associated factors among referred specimens at Debre Markos Referral Hospital, Ethiopia: prospective cross-sectional study.

Introduction: laboratory errors mostly emerge from the pre-analytical phase, mainly those related to collection, handling, transportation, and storage of diagnostic specimens. Specimen rejection due to improper sample collection, may lead to poor patient outcomes, such as incorrect diagnosis, inappropriate treatment, and death. This study aimed to assess the specimen rejection rate and associated factors among referred specimens at Debre Markos Referral Hospital. Methods: a prospective cross-sectional study design was applied from January 2020 to April 2020 to investigate specimen rejection rate and associated factors among referred specimens. The study population was all laboratory specimens referred for viral load, CD4 count, gene expert, and early infant diagnosis to the Debre Markos Referral Hospital laboratory. The statistical analysis was done with Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20.0 software. Results: of the total of 2750 specimens submitted to the laboratory from January 2020 to April 2020, 37 (1.34%) specimens were rejected due to different reasons like insufficient volume, hemolysis, and an inappropriate specimen container. Specimen collector training status and experience had a significant association with the specimen rejection rate. Conclusion: the results of our study show that the specimen rejection rate among referred specimens was high, indicating that more interventions are required to decrease the specimen rejection rate.

Research on mixed teaching platform of pediatric clinical laboratory practice teaching based on the Laboratory Quality Management System / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective:To explore application of mixed teaching platform in the clinical practice teaching of the laboratory medicine in Children's hospitals.Methods:We constructed a mixed online and offline teaching platform based on the Laboratory Quality Management System (LQMS) in the Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. The undergraduates from Batch 2016 ( n=15) and Batch 2018 ( n=12) of College of Laboratory Medicine of Chongqing Medical University were taken as control group and experimental group respectively. Traditional teaching method was adopted by the control group, and the mixed teaching method was adopted by the experimental group. The results of two groups' clinical practice assessment, rate of outstanding students (total score ≥ 90) and rate of satisfaction (score ≥ 90) were compared to evaluate the teaching effect. SPSS 17.0 was used to conduct t-test and Chi-square test. Results:The database of teaching platform includes 68 teaching cases, 198 pieces of courseware, 305 clinical cases and 3 036 atlases. The test bank has accumulated 4 657 tests, covering clinical laboratory, immunology, biochemistry, microbiology and blood transfusion. The results of students in experimental group were significantly better than those of the control group [the score of clinical practice assessment: (85.90±5.04) vs. (78.90±6.75)( P<0.05); rate of outstanding students: 33.3% (4/12) vs. 6.7% (1/15), P>0.05; rate of satisfaction: 86.7% (13/15) vs. 100.0% (12/12) ( P>0.05). Conclusion:The mixed online and offline teaching platform based on the LQMS is highly recognized by students and can significantly improve the effect of clinical practice teaching, which can provide typical medical case teaching at any time and make up for limited case type in children's hospital.

Clinical Referral Laboratory Personnel's Perception of Challenges and Strategies for Sustaining the Laboratory Quality Management System.

OBJECTIVES: To explore challenges explaining the decrease in quality performance and suggest strategies to improve and sustain laboratory quality services. METHODS: Twenty key informants' interviews from laboratory personnel were conducted in five laboratories. Four had previously shown a decrease in quality performance. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Two themes emerged: (1) insufficient coordination and follow-up system towards accreditation, where lack of coordination, follow-up, and audits explained the decrease in performance; (2) inadequate resource optimization, where insufficient knowledge in Laboratory Quality Management System (LQMS), ownership by laboratory workforce, and insufficient stakeholders' communication contributed to low-quality performance. CONCLUSIONS: The coordination, follow-up, and assessments of LQMS, in conjunction with training of laboratory workforce, would establish an institutional culture of continuous quality improvement (CQI) towards accreditation and sustainment of quality health care. To achieve CQI culture, routine gap checking and planning for improvement using a system approach is required.