Frequency of pre-analytical errors in chemical pathology section of tertiary care hospital.

Objective: To determine the frequency of Pre-Analytical Errors in the Chemical Pathology Section of Tertiary Care Hospital. Study Design: Descriptive study. Setting: Central Diagnostic Laboratory (CDL), KEMU/, Mayo Hospital, Lahore. Period: May 2022 to May 2024. Methods: The pre-analytical errors were noted out of 135,000 samples sent to Chemical pathology section both from indoor and outdoor. All the collected data was analysed by SPSS version 23. The frequency and percentage of errors were calculated. Results: A total of 12,852 (9.52%) laboratory errors including pre-analytical, analytical and post-analytical errors were observed. Out of the total errors, 8919 (69.4%), 1607 (12.5%), 2326 (18.1%) were pre-analytical errors, analytical and post-analytical errors, respectively. Haemolysis, unlabelled vial, quality not sufficient (QNS), EDTA, IV contamination, wrong vial, illegible hand writing, empty vial, spillage was 69, 20.4, 4.1, 2.6, 2.3 1.1, 0.3, 0.2, 0.1% respectively. Conclusion: The pre-analytical errors were the most common followed by post-analytical and analytical errors. The pre-analytical errors were more common in IPD samples than samples received from OPD and hemolysis was the most common pre-analytical error.