Assessment of pre-analytical errors in clinical laboratory at a tertiary care hospital of Southern India

Background: Majority of the laboratory error occurs in the pre-analytical phase which affects the diagnostic accuracy. This study was done to examine the frequency of pre-analytical errors classify them and to identify quality indicators which will further help in minimizing the occurrence of errors. Method: A two-month study was done to identify the pre-analytical errors occurred in the microbiology laboratory from February 15th 2016 to April 15th 2016 (n= 42079). We documented the types and frequency of errors. Result: Improperly/Incompletely filled request form was the major pre-analytical error observed. The total percentage of pre-analytical errors observed was 0.9% Conclusion: Pre-analytical phase in clinical laboratories should be continuously monitored and should be avoided by proper application of quality control.