Is the test result correct? A questionnaire study of blood collection practices in primary health care

Rationale, aims and objectives  Venous blood tests are important for clinical decision making. Most errors in blood testing are due to human errors before the blood samples reach the laboratory. The present study was designed to investigate venous blood sampling (VBS) practices in primary health car...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of evaluation in clinical practice 2010-08, Vol.16 (4), p.707-711
Main Authors: Söderberg, Johan, Wallin, Olof, Grankvist, Kjell, Brulin, Christine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
blood specimen collection
Blood Specimen Collection - methods
Chemistry
Clinical chemistry
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Kemi
Klinisk kemi
Male
Medical Errors
MEDICIN
MEDICINE
Middle Aged
phlebotomy
Primary Health Care
questionnaires
specimen handling
Surveys and Questionnaires
Sweden
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Summary:Rationale, aims and objectives  Venous blood tests are important for clinical decision making. Most errors in blood testing are due to human errors before the blood samples reach the laboratory. The present study was designed to investigate venous blood sampling (VBS) practices in primary health care centres (PHCs) compared with clinical laboratory staff. Method  A cross‐sectional survey of 70 PHCs and two clinical laboratories is conducted. All staff responsible for VBS (317 respondents, response rate 94%) completed a questionnaire on VBS practices. Results  Instructions for VBS were not followed in the surveyed PHCs. For example, only 54% reported that they always identified the patient by using name/Swedish identification number and only 5% reported that they always used photo‐ID, the two preferred means for patient identification. Only 12% reported that they always released venous stasis as soon as possible. Fewer PHC staff than clinical laboratory staff reported correct VBS practices. For example, 54% of the PHC staff reported that they always identified the patient by name and Swedish identification number, as compared with 95% of the clinical laboratory staff (P 
ISSN:1356-1294
1365-2753
1365-2753
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2753.2009.01179.x