Notification of critical results: a College of American Pathologists Q-Probes study of 121 institutions.

Abstract

Abstract Context.—Hospital accreditors are placing increased emphasis on the timeliness with which critical laboratory results are reported to caregivers. Objective.—To measure the speed of critical result notification at a group of laboratories, identify factors associated with faster reporting, and place findings in the context of the time required to transport and test specimens and to correct critical abnormalities. Design.—Contemporaneous review of 3545 inpatient and emergency department critical result notifications in 121 laboratories enrolled in the College of American Pathologists Q-Probes program. Results.—The median laboratory required a median of 5 minutes for staff to notify someone about a critical result once testing was complete. Laboratories affiliated with smaller institutions (P = .01), rural laboratories (P = .001), and sites that called results before releasing them from the laboratory computer (P = .02) were able to notify caregivers more quickly. There was variation among institutio...