Quality of Laboratory Request Forms and Reports in General Public Hospitals in Khartoum State, Sudan: A Cross-Sectional Study

—Background: Modern medical practice is progressively dependent on reliable clinical laboratory services. Proper filling of all the information needed on the laboratory forms and reports will assist diagnosis, hence patient care will be improved and resources and time will be saved. This study aims to assess the laboratory request forms and reports in general public hospitals in Khartoum state, Sudan. Materials and methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional hospital-based study, a checklist adapted from the WHO laboratory stepwise implementation tool was used to collect data from a random sample of hospitals attendance. Descriptive analysis was conducted using SPSS for Window version 20. Results: Out of 576 request forms assessed none was completely filled with all parameters, the average completion was 35.71%; the only parameter which was filled in 3 hospitals was the patient's name. Very important information that allows accurate reporting and interpretation of test results were missed, the doctor's name was shown in 28.6%, other parameters like sex, age, department, and the diagnosis with a completion rate of less than 24%. Also, out of 576 reports studied none was completely filled with all parameters, the average completion was 52.06%. Parameters were completely filled in 3 hospitals were name of the hospital, test name, and test result. This was followed by the patient's name (99.3) patient identification number (96.5%), date of release of the report (80.6%), Laboratory staff member name (53.3%), and presence of reference value range was shown in 45.3%, filling of other important parameters was poor. Conclusion: This study shows that the standard of completion of the request and report forms at our study sites was very poor. To improve proper filling of request and report practice, continuous medical education programs must be conducted and a well-established policy better to be developed.