Pre-analytical errors in Clinical Chemistry Laboratory of a Tertiary care Hospital
This study has been conducted with the aim to determine nature and frequency
of the occurrence of pre-analytical errors. These errors have been identified and
corrective measures suggested minimising them.
The objectives formulated for present study were: 1. to perform categorization of
pre-analytical errors; 2. to determine the frequency of occurrence of these errors;
3. to determine the percentage occurrence of these errors; 4. to strive to make
entire process of sample collection, transport and labelling of samples error free
and 5. to take corrective measures to prevent the occurrence of such errors in
future.
Materials and Methods
Present study was conducted in a Tertiary care hospital setting with the capacity
of 900 beds comprising of various super speciality departments like Nephrology,
Urology, Neurosurgery, Endocrinology and Paediatric surgery. The entire study
was conducted in the Central Clinical Chemistry Laboratory of Teerthanker
Mahaveer Hospital, Moradabad which is equipped to perform various routine
biochemical tests, specialized profiles such as renal, liver, cardiac, iron profiles
etc. and also hormonal analysis is possible. The present study was conducted over
a period of one year (January 2012 to December 2012) on 46,404 samples which
included both OPD (24,404) &IPD (22,000) collection.
Internal and external quality assurance has been maintained in the laboratory thus,
ruling out any error in the analytical phase and assuming that any error that was
there was due to pre-analytical variables.
Pre-analytical variables considered were-
  • Haemolysis (identified on observation and confirmed by potassium
    • determination).
  • Clotted blood (observed on naked eye and confirmed by inverting the
    • collection tubes).
  • Improper blood collection tubes (identified by colour coded caps of
    • vacutainers).
  • Wrong preservative (by confirming the colour coding of test tubes).
  • Wrong timing (timing of collection of fasting and post-prandial samples
    • was determined).
  • Wrong volume (volume of the sample checked in relation to the number
    • and the type of tests ordered).
  • Mislabelled samples (by matching the patient’s details on requisition slips
    • and vacutainer labels).
    International Journal of Bioinformatics and Biological Sciences : v.2 n.3&4. Dec. 2014
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