A nationwide multicenter study on clinical laboratory construction in China / 中华医院管理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To investigate the status of clinical laboratory construction in China and evaluate its completeness, adequacy and effectiveness.@*Methods@#An electronic investigation on laboratory construction was conducted in March 2019. The questionnaires were synchronously distributed to 14 055 laboratories covering 31 provincial administrative units in China. Excel 2010 and SPSS 20 were used for analysis of four main indicators: gross area, total equipment value, human resource, and testing items. Descriptive statistics were demonstrated and comparisons of the indicators among different types of laboratories were checked with the Kruskal-Wallis test.@*Results@#A total of 9 966 valid questionnaires were returned, with an effective recovery of 70.9%. The overall median of the four indicators were respectively: gross area(344.5 square meters), total equipment value(RMB 4.15 million), staff number(12) and testing item number(160). The difference of all four indicators among various types of laboratories was significant(P<0.05).@*Conclusions@#The construction of laboratories in primary hospitals and private hospitals is not satisfying, especially the equipment and human resource. More attention on the awareness to improve clinical laboratory construction for further quality improvement and patient safety is needed.