Factors related to accuracy in office cholesterol testing. Iowa Academy of Family Physicians Research Network.
BACKGROUND
There has been growing interest in the performance of diagnostic testing in physician office laboratories (POLs). Since the measurement of cholesterol is a well-defined and standardized laboratory test, it was selected to assess factors related to test accuracy in POLs.


METHODS
One hundred thirty-one family practice offices were eligible to participate in the survey. Each was mailed a cholesterol specimen with a standardized value in October 1988. The laboratory characteristics of those POLs with results that were within 10% of the true specimen value were compared with those with results that were greater than 10% in error.


RESULTS
Of the 131 POLs, 122 returned an answer for the unknown specimen. Ninety-eight (80%) were within 10% of the true value, and 114 (93%) were within 15%. Factors that were related to lower error rates (more likely to be within 10% total error) were whether the laboratory performed more than 25 laboratory tests per day, participated in a proficiency testing program, and ran daily quality controls, as well as the type of instrument the laboratory used.


CONCLUSIONS
Overall performance of the POLs compared favorably with reference laboratories; however, running controls and participating in a proficiency testing program may further improve POL test accuracy.
Erickson
R
R
Driscoll
C
C
Dvorak
L
L
Gjerde
C
C
Glanzer
J
J
Arteaga
M
M
Pisney
F
F
Williamson
P
P
D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D007484:Iowa; D010824:Physicians' Offices; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care
D002784:Cholesterol