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The impact of an electronic information system on clinical laboratory efficiency and prevention of identification errors

Background. The introduction of accreditation according to ISO 15189 standard in medical biochemistry laboratories in Croatia is of high priority in order to guarantee continuous quality improvement as well as the harmonization and standardization of laboratory diagnostics. The Institute of Clinical Chemistry, Merkur University Hospital, Zagreb is one of the first two laboratories accredited in Croatia. Methods. Evaluation of the impact of an electronic information system in providing safe and effective patient identification as well as in optimizing the efficiency of the entire laboratory process through the implementation of the new Laboratory Information System-LIS (BioNET application-LabNet, Josipovac, Croatia). Results. Our data showed that the application of LIS greatly contributed to the optimization of the efficiency of the whole laboratory process and significantly decrease identification errors through: application of the automatic system for patient identification and specimen labelling (bar coding) using two or more patient identifiers (name, birth date, identification number), increasing the automation of the analytical phase - work in „query-host“ with automated data entry including patient result verification, introducing computer- based medical records thus enabling critical results to reach physicians rapidly for improved clinical outcomes, applying Delta Check technology to evaluate laboratory results, improving test turnaround time, enabling health care planning and development of comprehensive electronic patient records. Conclusions. Application of electronic information system improve the overall quality and efficiency, prevent patient indentification errors and enables clinical laboratory to meet requirements according ISO 15189 standard for assessing the highest quality goals throughout the total testing process.

Laboratory Information System-LIS; optimization; efficiency; indentification errors

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