Pattern of completion of Laboratory Request Forms in a tertiary health facility

Abstract

Background: Laboratory request form is an important means of interaction between clinicians and laboratory service providers. The omission of information on the request form may result in laboratory errors which may have a negative impact on patients’ outcome.
 Objective: To assess the pattern of completion of laboratory request forms in a tertiary facility.
 Methods: Two thousand, two hundred and forty-one laboratory request forms sent to the laboratory over a period of two months were assessed for their level of completeness. 
 Results: Out of 2241 laboratory request forms, only 5 (0.2%) was fully completed. The most complete information on the forms included types of investigation required (98.9%), the gender of the patient (97.8%), the identity of consultant-in-charge of the patient (95.3%) and the referring physician's name and signature (93.8%). The least provided information was the time of collection of the specimen (0.7%).
 Conclusion: This study shows that laboratory request forms are frequently incompletely and inadequately completed. Continuous medical education of clinicians on the need for adequate completion of request forms is required.

Evaluation of the Completeness in the Filling of Laboratory Request Forms Submitted to the Haematology Laboratory at a Tertiary Hospital in Kenya

“…There were only 1.0% (3/289) of the evaluated request forms with all the required information and the rest had one or more of the parameters missing. This result is similar to the finding by Oyedeji et al [9] and Oyelekan et al [10] [12] reported a similar finding. The time of collection of the specimen was indicated in 84.1% of the forms and this was higher than the findings reported in studies by Adekoge et al [13], Makubi et al [8], Oyelekan et al [10] and Olayemi & Asiamah-Broni [11] where the parameter was recorded in 10.3%, 1.5%, 0.7% and 0.0% of the request forms respectively.…”

“…In terms of clinical information, the diagnosis was filled in 85.8% of the request forms and this finding compares with the that by Nutt et al [16] of 80.9% but higher than the result by Makubi et al [8] of 37.9%. The clinical history was indicated in 14.9% of the forms and it is lower than the one reported by Makubi et al [8] Clinician's name and sign were available in 96.9% and 96.5% of the evaluated forms respectively and this finding is similar to that from studies by Oyelekan et al [10] and Jegede et al [12] where both the parameters were present in 93.8%…”

Evaluation of Laboratory Request and Report Form Completeness and Legibility in Tuberculosis Diagnostic Laboratory at Hiwot Fana Specialized University Hospital, Harar, Ethiopia

“…In this study, the overall fully completed request and report format is only 72.9% and 81.7% respectively. This is higher than comparing proportionally a study from Nigeria in which only 5 (0.2%) was fully completed [11]. However, lower than study from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that 77.37 % of lab requests and 87.15% of laboratory report formats were fully completed [4].…”

“…The correct interpretation of the test results is a core point to patient management that highly based on the information given on the request and report form. Several studies have shown deficiencies in the filling of laboratory requests and report forms world widely [5,11,[15][16][17][18].…”

“…So that, filling both laboratories request and report with legible and adequate manner insight a vital role in the definitive diagnosis. It also strengthens the quality management system and quality of laboratory results that ultimately have a positive outcome on patients' management and significantly increase customer satisfaction by decreasing Turn Around Time (TAT) of each result [10,11].…”