ABSTRACT
Background:
Laboratory medicine is an important part of the health care system and directly contributes to preventive actions, diagnostics, treatment, and management of diseases. The level and quality of laboratory resources utilization have been frequently questioned. A dissemination of conflicting data regarding the amount of laboratory tests not accessed by the requesting doctors or by the patients themselves is observed, although very often the sources and methodologies used to access these numbers are not properly clarified.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to obtain data on access to tests results performed in Brazilian private clinical analysis laboratories using the laboratory information system developed by SHIFT Consultoria e Sistemas (Consulting and Systems).
Methods:
The information was extracted from 81 laboratories, responsible for the performance of 93,240,651 tests, collected from 7,067,087 patients.
Results:
The total number of tests not accessed, considering all the regions, was 5,071,454, corresponding to a proportion of 5.4%. Due to the potential risks of adverse events or impacts on diagnostic and treatment management, including the economic impacts due to prolonged hospitalization time, the 17.9% proportion which was found to correspond to “not accessed” tests showing “abnormal” results. It is of particular concern, mainly if we observe that from these, 2.5% were related to “abnormal” test results processed by laboratories working in hospital units.
Conclusion:
Due to the relevance of the theme, Sociedade Brasileira de Patologia Clínica/Medicina Laboratorial (SBPC/ML), will keep encouraging the monitoring and utilization of adequate laboratory resources, in order to enable sustainable health care systems.
Key words:
hospital laboratory; clinical laboratory services; patient safety; diagnostic error; laboratory information systems
