Exploring the Understanding of Specimen Collection and Delivery and Establishing a Barcode Technology System
1. Abstract of Emerging Trends in Scientific Research, 2015, Vol.4
DOI: 10.18488/journal.1002/2015.4/1002.4
4th
International Conference on Emerging Trends in
Scientific Research
28-29 November, 2015
Nippon Hotel, İstanbul-Turkey
Conference Website: www.pakrdw.com
16
Paper ID: 496/15/4
th
ICETSR
Exploring the Understanding of Specimen Collection and
Delivery and Establishing a Barcode Technology System
Tzu-Chuan Hsu1
--- Zu-Chun Lin2
--- Szu-Ying Lai3
--- Hsiu-Yen Huang4
1
Department of Nursing, Taiwan Adventist Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
2
Department of Nursing, Office of Research & Development, Tzu Chi University of Science & Technology,
Hualien, Taiwan
3
Department of Nursing, Tzu Chi University of Science & Technology
4
Quality of Control, Taiwan Adventist Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Abstract
Patient safety is an indicator for hospital accreditation and reflects health care quality.
Erroneous specimen collection and delivery may be caused by a lack of understanding or
an unfriendly work environment and procedure. Thus, reducing the error rate for
specimen collection and delivery is crucial for enhancing patient safety. However, few
current studies have addressed the differences between nurses, laboratory personnel,
and hospital couriers in their understanding of specimen collection and delivery. The
introduction of technology into clinical care creates safer, more efficient, and seamless
care approaches. However, clinically, a specimen collection and delivery system
established according to informatics theory is absent. The objective of the present study is
to (a) analyze the understanding the knowlwdge of specimen collection and delivery of
nurses, laboratory personnel, and hospital couriers; (b) analyze the correlation between
the demegraphics and understanding of specimen collection and delivery among various
personnel; (c) compare differences in the understanding of specimen collection and
delivery anomalies shown in patient safety systems and the knowledge of specimen
collection and delivery; and (d) establish a barcode specimen collection and delivery
system according to an Informatics Research Organizing Model (IROM). The present
study collected data from 137 participants and employed descriptive and inferential
analysis, specifically, Pearson product–moment correlation and analysis of variance. The
participants’ average years of service exceeded 7 years. Among the three groups, nurses
answered the least number of questions correctly, with an average of 8.29 correct
answers. A correlation was observed among age, identity, service unit, and understanding
scores. Statistics for patient safety from January 2013 to December 2014 indicated that
month, unit, years of service, and shift were correlated with error rate. The most common
error was failure to label test tubes. For blood specimen collection, the greatest number of
errors was observed in both patient safety incidents and level of understanding. The
results of the present study have been used as a reference for planning clinical education
and included in the system alerts according to the IROM concepts. The system was
completed in August 2015 and is currently undergoing testing. A pre- and postintroduction
performance analysis will be conducted after the test results have indicated no anomalies.
Keywords: Patient safety, Specimen collection and delivery error, Barcode system, Informatics research
organizing model (IROM).