Five-year follow-up of routine outpatient test turnaround time: a College of American Pathologists Q-Probes study.
BACKGROUND
Timely reporting of outpatient tests can increase efficiency of care and improve customer satisfaction.


OBJECTIVE
We conducted a survey in 2002 to determine how quickly hospital-based laboratories turned around routine requests for 3 common assays and compared the results with a similar survey conducted in 1997.


METHODS
One hundred eighteen laboratories prospectively recorded the collection-to-verification turnaround time for 9252 complete blood cell counts (CBCs), 8832 thyroid tests, and 9193 basic metabolic panels.


RESULTS
The median facility reported all test results by 7:00 am of the weekday immediately after the date of specimen collection. The bottom 10% of institutions reported 99% of CBCs and basic metabolic panels within 1 day and 60% of thyroid tests within 1 day. The 65 institutions that participated in both the 1997 and 2002 surveys showed significant overall improvement in turnaround time for all 3 types of tests (P <.001). In 2002, federal institutions had significantly slower turnaround times than nonfederal institutions for CBC tests (P <.001), thyroid tests (P =.03), and basic metabolic panels (P <.001). Other demographic and practice variables were not associated with turnaround time.


CONCLUSIONS
The turnaround time of routine outpatient tests appears to have improved between 1997 and 2002.
Valenstein
Paul
P
Department of Pathology, St Joseph Mercy Hospital, Ann Arbor, Mich 48106-0995, USA. paul@valenstein.org
Walsh
Molly
M
D001772:Blood Cell Count / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D010045:Outpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010338:Pathology, Clinical / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000592:standards; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013960:Thyroid Function Tests / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data