BACKGROUND Specimen labelling and patient identification are significant contributors to the rate of error in the preanalytical phase of laboratory medicine. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and nature of preanalytical quality monitoring practices for patient identification and specimen labelling errors in Irish clinical laboratories. METHODS A survey was developed by the Clinical Biochemistry Unit, Trinity College Dublin and the Irish External Quality Assessment Scheme (IEQAS), with the intention of gathering key information from each laboratory. Thirty-nine questions were organized into seven subsections covering general information, labelling requirements, information availability, rejection criteria, error monitoring, error reporting and interest in participation in an external quality assessment scheme. The survey was sent electronically to 63 laboratory quality managers at 55 laboratories in Ireland. RESULTS A total of 39 responses (61% response rate) provided information on 94 separate laboratory departments or disciplines. Laboratories reported varying practices and requirements for labelling specimens and all accepted handwritten preprinted request forms. All (100%) respondents had defined rejection criteria both for specimen labelling and request form completion. Unsurprisingly, the rejection criteria differed between the various laboratory disciplines. Almost all respondents provided information to clinical staff on labelling requirements, but just over half provided training on the same. A large percentage of laboratories (74%) monitored the rate of specimen-labelling errors; however, only 46% had defined target limits for acceptable rates of error. CONCLUSION The survey observed a wide variation in collection, recording and monitoring of errors but also confirmed significant interest in improving preanalytical monitoring and data collection.

中文翻译：

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监视和捕获实验室医学中的患者识别错误。

背景技术标本标记和患者识别是实验室医学分析前阶段错误率的重要因素。这项研究旨在调查爱尔兰临床实验室中用于患者识别和标本标记错误的分析前质量监测方法的普遍性和性质。方法：由都柏林三一学院临床生物化学系和爱尔兰外部质量评估计划（IEQAS）进行了一项调查，目的是从每个实验室收集关键信息。39个问题分为七个小节，涵盖了一般信息，标签要求，信息可用性，拒绝标准，错误监视，错误报告以及对参与外部质量评估计划的兴趣。该调查以电子方式发送给爱尔兰55个实验室的63名实验室质量经理。结果共有39个回答（61％的回答率）提供了有关94个单独的实验室部门或学科的信息。实验室报告了对标本和所有可接受的手写预印请求表加标签的不同实践和要求。所有（100％）受访者都为样品标签和填写表格要求定义了拒绝标准。毫不奇怪，不同实验室学科之间的拒绝标准有所不同。几乎所有受访者都向临床工作人员提供了有关标签要求的信息，但略多于一半的受访者提供了有关标签要求的培训。很大一部分实验室（74％）监测标本标记错误的发生率；然而，只有46％的人为可接受的错误率确定了目标极限。结论调查发现错误的收集，记录和监视有很大的不同，但也证实了对改善分析前监视和数据收集的浓厚兴趣。