The preanalytical process in the emergency department, a European survey
Author:
Garcia-Castrillo Riesgo Luis1, Lauwaert Door2, Cadamuro Janne3ORCID, von Meyer Alexander4, Dodt Christoph5
Affiliation:
1. Emergency Department , Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla , Santander , Spain 2. Emergency Department , UZ Brussel , Brussels , Belgium 3. Department of Laboratory Medicine , Paracelsus Medical University , Salzburg , Austria 4. Institute for Laboratory Medicine and Medical Microbiology, München-Klinik , Munich , Germany 5. Emergency Department , München-Klinik Bogenhausen , Munich , Germany
Abstract
Abstract
Objectives
Clinical decision-making in emergency medicine is under constant pressure from demand and performance requirements, with blood tests being a fundamental part of this. However, the preanalytical process has received little attention. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the quality of preanalytical phase processes in European emergency departments (EDs) from the perspectives of the three main providers: clinicians, nurses, and laboratory specialists.
Methods
This online survey, distributed among European EDs and laboratories, was supported by the European Society for Emergency Nursing (EUSEN), European Society for Emergency Medicine (EuSEM), and the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM). The size of the centres, the European region, the responder’s profession and the country’s economic condition were used as co-variables.
Results
We included 376 responses from all ED-related professions from 306 European centres. In 66.9% of all ED visits, at least one blood test was performed. Tests were requested mostly by nurses (44.6%) using electronic Order/Entry systems (65.4%). Only a minority (19%) reported not using laboratory quality indicators (QIs). Most responders defined the TAT starting point “when the laboratory receives the sample” (66.1%), defining the goal to be “less than 60 min” (69.9%), but only 42.4% of the centres estimated achieving this goal.
Conclusions
Our survey illustrates the current situation on preanalytical blood sample processing in European EDs from the clinical and laboratory perspectives. The results emphasise the importance of the IT infrastructure and QI usage in this process and highlight some differences between European regions.
Publisher
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Subject
Biochemistry (medical),Clinical Biochemistry,General Medicine
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