Clinical chemistry laboratory errors at St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

ObjectiveThis study was aimed to determine the magnitude of errors in clinical chemistry laboratory tests at different phases of the assay of clinical chemistry laboratory unit.ResultsFrom the total 1633 clinical chemistry laboratory tests done, overall, 541 (33.1%) errors occurred which accounts that 392 (72.3%), 45 (8.3%), and 104 (19.2%) were pre analytical, analytical and post analytical phases of errors, respectively. Incomplete clinical data of patient was observed on 1185 (72.6%) of CLL tests. Name, gender, and age of patients were missed on 8 (0.5%), 190 (11.6%), and 257 (15.7%) forms of the requests, respectively. The physician’s name existed only on 248 (15.2%) and signature on 1137 (69.6%) of the request forms. An essential patient data were incomplete, which needs emphasis on awareness creation. Such practice improves laboratory data interpretation and thereby prevent misdiagnose and mistreatment of patients.

Total Clinical Chemistry Laboratory Errors and Evaluation of the Analytical Quality Control Using Sigma Metric for Routine Clinical Chemistry Tests

“…Our study found a lower frequency of 6.2% IQC failure compared to the study conducted in Pakistan (32%), 46 but higher than the study conducted in Ethiopia (2.95%) 19 and India (0.6%). 47 The difference between findings may be due to variation in equipment and laboratory personnel performance, storage condition of QC materials, the reconstitution of lyophilized QC materials and availability of in-house mean/SD.…”

“…The current study found that the prevalence of errors in the TTP was 15.3%. This finding was lower than the study conducted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (33.1%) 19 but higher than the study conducted in Saudi Arabia (4.35%) 42 and Ghana (4.7%). 33 This may be due to difference in the infrastructure of the laboratory, regular monitoring and evaluation, availability of functional LIS, competency of laboratory staffs, in-house mean/SD, variation in the study designs, operationalization of variables and QIs.…”

“…Based on our study, the clinical history of the patient was not stated in all 4719 (100%) requests which were consistent with the study conducted in Gondar, Ethiopia with 99% incompleteness, 20 but higher than studies conducted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (72.6%). 19 In addition, signature of physicians (77.5%) and location of patients (66.2%) information were also incomplete in the test request. These findings showed a wide difference from previous studies conducted in Gondar (38.7% and 1.8%), 20 Addis Ababa (30.4% and 1.1%) 19 and Nigeria (19.8% and 20.1%) 32 respectively.…”

“… 19 In addition, signature of physicians (77.5%) and location of patients (66.2%) information were also incomplete in the test request. These findings showed a wide difference from previous studies conducted in Gondar (38.7% and 1.8%), 20 Addis Ababa (30.4% and 1.1%) 19 and Nigeria (19.8% and 20.1%) 32 respectively. The higher incomplete information in the current study may be due to lack of commitment, failure to create awareness and workload.…”

“… 18 Despite very few studies on the overall distribution of laboratory errors in Clinical Chemistry, no studies have yet been conducted to evaluate analytical performance using sigma metric in Ethiopia. 19 , 20 Therefore, the current study will assess the distribution of errors in each phase of the clinical chemistry testing process and the analytical performance of routine chemistry tests using sigma metric.…”