This is a difficult issue. In my last laboratory, at a time of desperate staff shortage we stopped putting in the clinical details and received a lot of flack from some of the requesters, and were forced to continue to enter the data. In fact, about 10-15% were reported as 'illegible' - although I could generally read them, the data entry staff with limited experience could not. Here, at Southend, we transcribe (with varying efficiency) the clinical details on the GP requests, but not the hospital ones; this was in response to pressure from GP Fundholders. We have tried training data entry staff, but with the high turnover this is worse than trying to paint the Forth Bridge, and actually has little impact.
We are just about to go over to the WWA computer system and will be introducing form scanning, with a range of boxes to pre-code some common clinical details, which will be read and reported on all the reports. However, I'm not sure how good this is going to be - so far we have intensively trained users on one hospital ward how to complete the form and only a small fraction are being properly completed!
There is no doubt that the clinical info on the report does jog the mind of the requester (especially if it is a GP or out-patient, where the report may not be seen for a few days after the request was made) but the quality of what we enter is pretty awful (and occasionally hilarious)
Cathryn Corns
Head of Biochemistry
Southend Hospital
01702 435555 ext 4058
-----Original Message-----
From: Paulette Cusick [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 10 March 2003 12:03
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: clinical details on reports
In an ideal world the biochemistry reports leaving the laboratory should
contain the clinical details provided on the request form. With high
turnover of the staff group inputting request forms into the lab computer
and a growing workload, the quality of the clinical details input by them
has deteriorated to the point at which I feel the errors outweigh the
usefulness of reporting this information back to users. We do not have
electronic requesting or form scanning in place yet and I am not convinced
that training the inputters in medical terminology will provide a practical
and lasting solution (because of the high staff turnover).
I am keen to know how many labs print clinical details received with the
request on their reports. Specifically, has anyone stopped this practice
and had negative feedback from their users? Did the level of clinical
details provided by your users then fall off as a consequence? At the
moment, my colleagues and I are divided on the way forward!
Paulette Cusick
Consultant Biochemist
Partnership Pathology Services
Frimley Park Hospital
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