The Cost of Preanalytical Errors in the Context of Inpatient Complete Blood Count Testing

• Main Author: Burrows, James Michal
• Other Authors: Reis, Marciano
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Pre-analytical; Pre-analytical error; Laboratory; Laboratory error; Cost; Finance; Patient safety; Medical error; Quality Improvement; Quality assurance; Error; Pre-analytical phase; CBC; complete blood count; 0769
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/42385

The majority of laboratory testing errors originate in the pre-analytical phase. While the causes and frequencies of pre-analytical errors are well characterized, there are few studies investigating the cost of these errors. The objective of this research was to build a model to quantify the cost of pre-analytical errors occurring during inpatient complete blood count (CBC) testing at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Sunnybrook). The resultant cost model accounts for the costs of materials, resources, and personnel-time consumed in the CBC testing process. In 2011, pre-analytical errors in inpatient CBC testing cost Sunnybrook $43,462, and represented a loss of 775 employee hours due to laboratory test repetition and error-related activities. This cost model represents the minimum cost of a pre-analytical error, as costs extraneous to the laboratory were beyond the study scope. Future studies investigating downstream effects of pre-analytical errors and the costs associated with them should be conducted.