title: National survey on intra-laboratory turnaround time for some most common routine and stat laboratory analyses in 479 laboratories in China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To investigate the state of the art of intra-laboratory turnaround time (intra-TAT), provide suggestions and find out whether laboratories accredited by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 15189 or College of American Pathologists (CAP) will show better performance on intra-TAT than non-accredited ones.
  
  
  METHODS
  479 Chinese clinical laboratories participating in the external quality assessment programs of chemistry, blood gas, and haematology tests organized by the National Centre for Clinical Laboratories in China were included in our study. General information and the median of intra-TAT of routine and stat tests in last one week were asked in the questionnaires.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The response rate of clinical biochemistry, blood gas, and haematology testing were 36% (479/1307), 38% (228/598), and 36% (449/1250), respectively. More than 50% of laboratories indicated that they had set up intra-TAT median goals and almost 60% of laboratories declared they had monitored intra-TAT generally for every analyte they performed. Among all analytes we investigated, the intra-TAT of haematology analytes was shorter than biochemistry while the intra-TAT of blood gas analytes was the shortest. There were significant differences between median intra-TAT on different days of the week for routine tests. However, there were no significant differences in median intra-TAT reported by accredited laboratories and non-accredited laboratories.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many laboratories in China are aware of intra-TAT control and are making effort to reach the target. There is still space for improvement. Accredited laboratories have better status on intra-TAT monitoring and target setting than the non-accredited, but there are no significant differences in median intra-TAT reported by them.
authors.affiliation: National Center for Clinical Laboratories, Beijing Hospital, Beijing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fei
authors.affiliation: National Center for Clinical Laboratories, Beijing Hospital, Beijing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: National Center for Clinical Laboratories, Beijing Hospital, Beijing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: National Center for Clinical Laboratories, Beijing Hospital, Beijing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Falin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: National Center for Clinical Laboratories, Beijing Hospital, Beijing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: National Center for Clinical Laboratories, Beijing Hospital, Beijing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhiguo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007755:Laboratories, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D008297:Male; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: clinical laboratory services; quality control; quality indicators