Logistic analysis of delayed reporting of emergency blood potassium and comparison of improved outcomes.

Potassium testing is an essential test in emergency medicine. Turnaround time (TAT) is the time between specimen receipt by the laboratory and the release of the test report. A brief in-laboratory TAT increases emergency department effectiveness. Optimizing processes to shorten TAT using other tools requires extensive time, resources, training, and support. Therefore, we aimed to find a convenient way to shorten TAT, identify risk factors affecting the timeliness of emergency potassium test reporting, and verify the intervention's effects. The dependent variable was emergency potassium reporting time > 30 or < 30 min. Logistic analysis was performed on monitorable factors, such as sex, age, potassium results, number of items, specimen processing time (including centrifugation and time before specimen loading), critical value ratio, instrument status, shift where the report was issued, specimen status, and work experience, as independent variables. In the multivariate analysis, work experience, instrument failure rate, and specimen processing time were risk factors for emergency blood potassium reporting exceeding 30 min. Improvement measures were implemented, significantly decreasing the timeout rate for acute potassium reporting. Our study confirms the usefulness of logistics in reducing the time required to report potassium levels in the emergency department, providing a new perspective on quality management.

Application of the FMEA Method in Improving the Quality Management of Emergency Complete Blood Count Testing.

OBJECTIVE: Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) was used to identify factors that contribute to quality management deficiencies in laboratory testing of emergency complete blood count (CBC). METHODS: Improvements included instrument updates, personnel training, and laboratory information system optimization. We used operational data from January 2021 (control group) and January 2022 (FMEA group) to compare the risk priority number (RPN) of FMEA, emergency CBC laboratory turnaround time (TAT), error report rate, and specimen failure rate. RESULTS: After the implementation of FMEA, the average RPN dropped from 36.24 ± 9.68 to 9.45 ± 2.25, (t = 20.89, P < .05). Additionally, the median TAT for emergency CBCs decreased from 23 min to 11 min as did the interquartile distance (17-34 min to 8-16 min) (P < .05). The rate of emergency CBC error reports decreased from 1.39% to 0.71% (P < .05), and the specimen failure rate decreased from 0.95% to 0.32% (P < .05). Patient satisfaction also increased from 43% to 74% (P < .05), and the technician-performed morphology assessment pass rate increased from 16.7% to 100% (P < .05). CONCLUSION: Improving the emergency CBC testing process with FMEA can shorten emergency CBC laboratory TAT and reduce specimen failure rates and reporting error rates. The FMEA can be used to improve quality management in emergency CBC laboratories.