COMPARISON OF INCIDENCE OF PRE-ANALYTICAL PHASE ERRORS IN OPD AND IPD SAMPLES IN A SUPER-SPECIALTY HOSPITAL: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Objective: To evaluate and compare the incidence of errors in pre-analytical phase in OPD and IPD samples. Multitude of human involvement in preanalytical processes makes this phase error prone. Analysis of the same can help in assessing the magnitude and planning the corrective steps. Methodology: Study was conducted retrospectively for the period July 2019 to June 2020. Samples collected from OPD sample collection room and different areas of IPD were scrutinized for pre-defined errors. Number of errors in OPD and IPD were statistically compared. Results: 679 samples out of 50713 (1.3%) OPD samples in the study period had one error or the other. Similarly, 1533 samples out of 87525 (1.7%) IPD samples had errors. When compared statistically, this difference is highly significant. (p < 0.00001). Conclusion: IPD samples are more prone to errors for the fact that these samples are collected by nursing staff or resident doctors in the different areas of the hospital. This staff is involved in patient care and has to look after multiple tasks, hence chances of error are more. OPD samples are collected by the same team, who are trained phlebotomists and are in constant touch with lab. Thus OPD samples have less preanalytical phase errors.