Medical errors associated with clinical tests are directly related to the factor of patient safety, and the ways to improve tests’ quality are important to be studied in detail.
The authors of the article “A Trend Analysis of Quality Indicators of Patient Safety in the Clinical Laboratory over 21 Months” focused on evaluating the quality indicators used during the pre- and post-analytical phases in laboratories in order to decrease errors and improve the quality of test results (Agarwal et al. 300).
The research published in 2012 can be discussed as significant to contribute to choosing quality indicators in order to improve testing in the clinical and laboratory settings.
Focusing on the problem statement, it is important to note that Agarwal and the group of researchers chose the urgent problem. Thus, the researchers noted that during the pre- and post-analytical phases of testing sessions, the rate of errors is about 93% (Agarwal et al. 300).
As a result, it was significant to select the quality indicators that were appropriate to indicate the quality of both pre- and post-analytical phases.
The researchers chose incorrect identification, incomplete forms, and sample-rejection rate for the pre-analytical phase as well as urgent sample reporting and critical-values reporting for the post-analytical phase (Agarwal et al. 301).
Concentrating on these indicators, the researchers were able to examine changes in the quality rates. Therefore, the choice of indicators can be discussed as relevant.
The selection of the methodology can also be discussed as efficient because to conduct the 21-month long study, the researchers focused on the prospective analysis of results during separate pre- and post-analytical phases.
It was important to study the tests in the laboratory of Institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences in Delhi during the period of January 2010-September 2011. Thus, during this period, 75 675 blood samples were received for testing (Agarwal et al. 301).
From this point, to receive the full picture, the prospective analysis was supported with the trend analysis, and researchers also focused on the implementation of three patient-safety strategies as well training sessions for the personnel in order to examine the approaches to improve testing in laboratories.
Focusing on the data analysis and discussion of the results, it is important to determine such strengths as the use of both statistical and trend analysis methods to conclude about the collected information. The researchers found that 91.2% of errors were detected during the pre-analytical phase (Agarwal et al. 302).
According to the quality indicators, the most typical errors were associated with incomplete forms and sample rejection.
However, the most important result is that the identification of quality indicators and staff training helped improve the quality of testing in the laboratory because of the effective patient safety strategies and additional training sessions.
The trend analysis was effective to show how the rate of errors declined within the set period of time.
The findings of the research demonstrate that it is efficient for laboratories to focus on monitoring the quality of testing regarding the five determined indicators because they represent the most typical errors in laboratory tests.
The research results can be used while improving the monitoring systems for laboratories because to advance the quality of testing, it is necessary to refer to indicators identified by Agarwal and the group of researchers.
Thus, the authors’ notes regarding the correlation between the use of quality indicators in laboratories, decreases in medical errors, and improvement of patient safety can be discussed as valid.
Works Cited
Agarwal, Rachna, Sujata Chaturvedi, Neelam Chhillar, Ishita Pant, Smita Kaushik, and Chandra Bhushan Tripathi. “A Trend Analysis of Quality Indicators of Patient Safety in the Clinical Laboratory Over 21 Months”. Lab Medicine 43.6 (2012): 300-306. Print.