Kushal Bhattarai¹* and Nilu Manandhar²

¹Lecturer of Biochemistry, College of Medical Sciences and Teaching Hospital, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal
²Lecturer of Physiology, College of Medical Sciences and Teaching Hospital, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal

*Corresponding Author: Kushal Bhattarai, Lecturer of Biochemistry, College of Medical Sciences and Teaching Hospital, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal.

Received: March 27, 2018; Published: May 25, 2018

Citation: Kushal Bhattarai and Nilu Manandhar. “Turnaround Time in Clinical Chemistry Laboratory: A Hospital Based Study on Billing-to-Reporting and Collection-to-Reporting Times”. Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 2.3 (2018).

Abstract

Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the billing-to-reporting and collection-to-reporting turnaround times of clinical chemistry samples in a tertiary care teaching hospital laboratory.

Materials and Methods: It was a hospital based cross-sectional study conducted at the clinical chemistry section of Central Clinical Laboratory, College of Medical Sciences and Teaching Hospital, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal, from September to November 2017. Billing, collection and reporting times for 1737 clinical chemistry samples were retrieved from the hospital laboratory information system to calculate the billing-to-reporting and collection-to-reporting turnaround times.

Results: Overall, the median (interquartile interval) billing-to-reporting time was 138.0 (96.0-182.0) minutes and collection-to-reporting time was 98.0 (77.0 - 136.0) minutes. These turnaround times were significantly lesser in the casualty and OPD samples as compared to the non-casualty and IPD samples, respectively; and highest in the surgical samples (p < 0.001). Additionally, the sam-ples billed or collected during night shift were reported slowly was compared to those billed or collected during the morning shift (p < 0.010); the trend was consistent for casualty and non-casualty samples; OPD samples; and samples from different departments. Lastly, only 2.7% of the samples were reported within 60 minutes of billing, 42.8% within 120 minutes and 72.3% within 180 minutes; 10.9% of the samples were reported within 60 minutes of collection, 66.4% within 120 minutes and 91.2% within 180 minutes.

Conclusion: The analytical turnaround time and delay in the present study were appreciably greater than in many studies. To this end, further studies can be planned to determine the causes of such delays.

Keywords: Timeliness; Clinical Chemistry; Billing; Collection; Reporting; Turnaround Time

Copyright: © 2018 Kushal Bhattarai and Nilu Manandhar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.