To determine the frequency of preanalytical nonconformance in a medium-sized private pathology laboratory.
A retrospective audit was performed at Southern IML Pathology in Wollongong and Nowra, Australia, to identify incidences of nonconformance over a 12-month period from October 2012 to September 2013. Data were obtained using an in-house nonconformance reporting system and from the quarterly Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Key Incident Monitoring and Management System.
There were 584,012 patient episodes tested and 2,726,597 tests performed at Southern IML Pathology during the study period. Of the 11,266 incidences of nonconformance during the study period, 3,613 (32%) were from collection, 2,164 (19%) were from the specimen reception area, and 2,242 (20%) were from data entry. In total, 3,045 (27%) incidences required a re-collection. A total of 10,972 patients had an incidence of preanalytical nonconformance, which is 1.9% of patients who had tests performed during the study period.
This is one of few studies of preanalytical nonconformance in a medium-sized private laboratory setting. Monitoring nonconformance for a pathology laboratory is essential to determine areas where further improvements can be made.