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Improving Quality of Patient Care in an Emergency Department
- Source :
- American Journal of Clinical Pathology. 130:573-577
- Publication Year :
- 2008
- Publisher :
- Oxford University Press (OUP), 2008.
-
Abstract
- The purpose of our study was to improve the quality of care in an emergency department (ED) as measured by length of stay (LOS), total turnaround time (TAT) for laboratory result reporting, and the blood culture contamination rate. Data were included for patients who had at least 1 of 5 laboratory tests performed as part of their care. The study was conducted in 2 phases. First, phlebotomy was performed by a dedicated phlebotomist or nonlaboratory personnel. The second phase added a dedicated laboratory technologist. There was a significant reduction in total TAT for all tests (at least 46 and 75 minutes in the respective interventions), and blood culture contamination rates dropped from 5.0% to 1.1%, although the overall LOS did not change. Estimated cost avoidance is more than $400,000 annually. Quality of care in an ED is improved when samples are collected by a dedicated phlebotomist, but overall LOS does not change.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Quality management
Quality Assurance, Health Care
Laboratory Technologist
Efficiency, Organizational
Turnaround time
Specimen Handling
Time
Medical Laboratory Personnel
Health care
medicine
Humans
Intensive care medicine
Phlebotomist
Hematologic Tests
Clinical Laboratory Techniques
business.industry
General Medicine
Emergency department
Length of Stay
Phlebotomy
Emergency medicine
Workforce
Patient Care
Emergency Service, Hospital
business
Quality assurance
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 19437722 and 00029173
- Volume :
- 130
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- American Journal of Clinical Pathology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....0a4ceb26aa02deb17ad941711db36cdc