Laboratory Errors In Pathology And Troubleshooting Methods

Abstract

Pathologists play an important role in the final diagnosis for the patient and help the clinician in appropriate treatment planning. Both clinicians and pathologists have a crucial role in the laboratory process and it should be monitored properly for accurate and timely reporting.There are many steps in the laboratory process, where errors can occur which can affect the final diagnosis and prognosis for the patient. Errors can be major or minor but it eventually affects the patient's outcome. The laboratory process is broadly classified into three categories- pre-analytic, analytic and post-analytic phases. The errors that could frequently occur in each phase and the troubleshooting methods are broadly discussed in this article. Errors that have occurred should be investigated properly by identifying the main source of error and preventive action should be taken to avoid it in the future.

Root Cause Analysis: Unraveling Common Laboratory Challenges

“…Additionally, improved performance could be facilitated by quality assurance that incorporated both internal and external quality monitoring [18]. Sandra et al listed the possible errors occurring in a lab setup and discussed the steps undertaken to minimize them [19]. The most notable root causes of the failures of immunohistochemistry were identified to be a lack of standardization procedures and inconsistent monitoring of the qualitative and quantitative parameters [20].…”