How Does the Effect of Incorrect Specimen Taking Effect the Time it Takes to Identify an Outbreak Occurring.
Background
Outbreaks occur all around the world and can affect anyone in the area. An outbreak is defined as an increase that is often sudden, in a disease that is above the normally expected amount of that population in that area. Outbreaks are typically more limited in a geographical area. During an outbreak, it is important to be able to have early identification of an outbreak in order to reduce that amount of continue transmitting among the patients, with the assistance of health care workers. According to the Guide to Prevention of hospital-acquired infections published by the Centers for Disease Control …show more content…
Laboratory services allow for the specimens that are collected to be quickly, and accurately be identified, and information collected and reported to the physician, who is in charge of the patient in question. Errors during this process can happen at any time along the way. A journal called No Preanalytical Errors in Laboratory Testing: A Beneficial Aspect for Patients published by the department of Super Speciality Gastroenterology found that most errors that affect laboratory results occur in the preanalytical phase.The preanalytical phase includes the overall specimen collection, and the processing and handling of possible variables. There are two kinds of variables, specimen variables in which these ones can be controlled, while there are other variables that are uncontrollable, and are needed to be identified and separated in order to affect the laboratory results. This is due to the difficulty of meeting the standard procedure for sample collection. The journal also found that during this phase - the start from when they ordered the test at the time it is ready to be sent to the laboratory- this can account for up to 70% of errors that are faced during the diagnostic process. 60% of these errors are due to the insufficient specimen quality and quantity. Another journal published called Types and Frequency of Errors during Different Phases of Testing At a Clinical Medical Laboratory of a Teaching