The variety and rate of human error in reception staff of clinical laboratories in Tehran and Tabriz in 2014

Abstract

Background and aims: The importance of clinical laboratories work and test results is clearly related with the community health. This study aimed to evaluate the variety and rate of pre and post-analytical errors among reception staff in clinical laboratories of governmental, private and military hospitals. Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 183 of reception staff of clinical laboratories in governmental, private and military hospitals from Tehran and Tabriz Cities were enrolled. The required data was collected using a self-designed specific form (voluntary human error reporting Form). At first, the CTA (Cognitive Task analysis) method was used to elicit the cognitive task demands and identify the probable human errors. The data collection form was designed based on the obtained results and distributed in study population. After 6 months, the fulfilled forms were collected and the reported data were analyzed using some statistical tests such as chi-square. Results: According to the results, the study population was young (mean age 33.86 ± 6.92 years) with a relatively low experience (7.75± 6.72 years). 14 various human errors were identified in studied tasks via CTA method. The 93% of subjects reported at least one error during study period and a total of 1188 errors were reported by individuals. The error report rate in pre and post- analytical phases were 57.4% and 42.6%, respectively. Conclusion: Because of the relatively high variety and rate of reported errors and also, the importance of laboratory errors in the medical diagnosis and treatment, it is necessitate to record, analysis and control of human errors in medical laboratory tasks.