Patient Safety and Clinical Laboratories

Patient Safety and
Clinical Laboratories
Glacy Mae C. Catipon
BMLS – 1B

The patients’ safety has always been the
top priority of all medical professionals.
Hence, being knowledgeable enough in
providing and promoting the right patient
care and handling laboratory tests will
avoid errors that could affect the patients’
health.

The IOM identified six aims in Crossing the Quality
Chasm as the foci for improving healthcare:
• safe
• effective
• patient-centered
• timely
• efficient
• equitable

Five competencies were designated as essential for all
healthcare practitioners to master in order to improve
healthcare quality and patient safety:
practice evidence-based medicine
focus on quality improvement
use information technology
deliver patient-centered care
work in interdisciplinary teams.

1. Medical Laboratory Professionals are stewards of patient
safety and must promote a culture of safety defined by the
IOM as safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and
equitable practice.
• The aim of clinical laboratory science and the services it provides is to
improve patients’ lives during the total testing process.
• Although each phase of the total testing process is important to safe care,
increased efforts must be placed on evaluating diagnostic services by
IOM measures of health outcomes
• Safe laboratory testing assures care that avoids harm to patients and
enhances safe care outcomes through error prevention, continuous
process improvement, and appropriate care for each individual.

safety and must promote a culture of safety defined by the
IOM as safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and
equitable practice.
• Effective care uses scientific knowledge to limit overuse, underuse, and
misuse of laboratory testing services.
• Patient-centered laboratory care is responsive to, and respectful of,
patient preferences, needs, and values, and must include either face-to-
face or written communication for patients about medical laboratory
tests and patient rights.
• Timely laboratory services reduce wait times for patients and other
providers of healthcare, so that the next step in care is not delayed.

safety and must promote a culture of safety defined by the IOM
as safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and
equitable practice.
• Efficient laboratory services avoid waste, which includes time,
supplies, equipment, energy, and ideas.
• Equitable laboratory services do not vary in quality due to patient
characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, geographic location or
socioeconomic status, and are tailored for individual circumstances.

2. Medical Laboratory Professionals must incorporate each of these IOM
competencies into daily practice, i.e. provide patient-centered care, employ
evidence-based laboratory practice, apply quality improvement principles,
use informatics, and work on interprofessional healthcare teams. Medical
Laboratory Professionals:
• Recognize that the patient is the focus of our practice;
• Acknowledge that evidence-based laboratory practice is critical to
providing effective healthcare;
• Apply quality improvement principles to healthcare processes to
reduce opportunities for errors that could harm patients and to
improve patient outcomes;

2. Medical Laboratory Professionals must incorporate each of these IOM
competencies into daily practice, i.e. provide patient-centered care, employ
evidence-based laboratory practice, apply quality improvement principles,
use informatics, and work on interprofessional healthcare teams. Medical
Laboratory Professionals:
• Use informatics as an essential component of their practice, due to
advanced technology of laboratory testing systems and integrated
systems to manage and communicate information for laboratory
testing systems;
• Bring laboratory testing expertise to interprofessional healthcare
teams as they develop and provide standards of care.

3. Medical Laboratory Professionals promote the culture of safety as an
organizing principle in certification and licensure of professionals at every
practice level and in accreditation of programs at all educational levels.
• Medical Laboratory Professionals must adopt a ‘fair and just culture’
philosophy, recognizing that humans make errors, and understanding the
science of safety and error prevention.
• Patient safety competencies must be an integral component of the
accreditation requirements for all Clinical Laboratory Science educational
programs.
• Educational curricula must address competencies necessary to improve
patient safety and add value to services delivery as measured by IOM aims
of safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable healthcare.

3. Medical Laboratory Professionals promote the culture of safety as an
organizing principle in certification and licensure of professionals at every
practice level and in accreditation of programs at all educational levels.
• Curricula must be expanded beyond the basics of patient identification
and analytical accuracy by enhancing students’ understanding of
additional pre- and post-analytic sources of error, quality improvement
strategies that measure impact of diagnostics on health outcomes,
utilization of evidence-based practice methods and basic principles of
integrated electronic health record systems and reporting.
• Patient Safety competencies must be foundational components of the
certification and licensure requirements for all Clinical Laboratory
Science practice levels.

Reference:
https://ascls.org/patient-safety-and-clinical-
laboratory-science-position-paper/

Patient Safety and Clinical Laboratories

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