Determining the rate and reasons for specimen rejection among specimens referred for HIV viral load determination through referral linkage to Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, north-central, Ethiopia,2023: Retrospective study

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BackgroundThe preanalytical phase encompasses the time between the clinician's test order to the sample being ready for analysis. Of all errors during the laboratory diagnostic process,70 % appeared in the pre-analytical phase. In clinical laboratories, it is crucial to ensure proper specimen collection and handling, which is essential to guarantee quality assessment, monitoring process standardization, improving performance, and ensuring patient safety. Despite this importance, no study has been conducted in the study area to investigate the rate and reasons for human immunodeficiency virus viral load sample rejection. ObjectiveTo determine the rate of human immunodeficiency virus viral load sample rejection (number of preanalytical errors) documented during the preanalytical phase and articulate possible causes for specimen rejection. Material and methodsA retrospective study was conducted at Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital from January 1st to January 31, 2023. During the study period, 5950 samples were extracted from the human immunodeficiency virus viral load laboratory sample tracking log books, which were sent to the hospital for viral load testing between August 2021 to November 2022. The collected data were cleaned and entered into EPI data version 4.6 before transferred it to STATA version 14.0 for analysis. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, and cross-tabulations were used to summarize the findings. ResultsThe study found that improper sample handling was common during the preanalytical phase. According to the current study, 3.6 % of the sample was rejected at pre analytical stage. The most common reasons for specimen rejection were using inappropriate containers (64.0 %) uncentrifuged specimens (20.4 %); hemolyzed specimens (7.0 %); insufficient specimen volume (6.2 %); clotted specimens (1.9 %); and specimen labeling problems (0.5 %). ConclusionThis study found that the most common preanalytical error was using an inappropriate sample collection container, followed by uncentrifuged samples, Therefore, it is recommended that mentorship programs be developed to educate staff on the preanalytical phase of laboratory testing, specifically on sample collection, storage, and transportation for HIV viral load testing. Additionally, the quality management system of laboratory processes should be strengthened to ensure accuracy and minimize errors.