Evaluation of the completeness in the filling of laboratory request forms submitted to the haematology laboratory at a Tertiary Hospital in Kenya

Abstract

Background information: The laboratory request form is a communication link between the clinicians and the laboratory staff. It contains demographic details of the patient including full names, age and gender; the test required; location of the patient; date and time of request among other details. Incomplete and inaccurate filling of the request forms may cause errors which can impact on the quality of the patient care. Methodology: The study was a descriptive cross sectional where 289 laboratory request forms submitted consecutively to the haematology laboratory during the month of January 2018 were evaluated. Data was collected using a data collection form and analyzed by use of frequency table. Ethical clearance was sought from Institutional Research and Ethical Committee of Moi University and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital. Results: Of all the 289 forms evaluated, only 1% (3/289) had all the required information. The parameters with the most information were patient’s name (100%), hospital number (100%), sex (99.7%), age (98.3%), investigation requested (97.6%), the location of the patient (96.9%), clinician’s name (96.9%) and signature (96.5%). The least information was recorded for clinical history (14.7%) and address of the patient (4.8%). Conclusion: The study showed that there were inadequacies in the recording of the required information in the laboratory request form. The parameters which were completely filled were the patient’s name and the hospital number, whereas the address and the clinical history had the least completion rates.