Understanding Lab Errors

Have you ever wondered what kind of errors can happen with your blood or urine samples? In this week’s video, we look at the different lab errors that can happen in clinical labs and how they affect patient care. We talk about how tracking mistakes, keeping the lab in good shape, and training staff can make tests more reliable and keep patients safe. We highlight how finding and fixing lab mistakes is important to avoid wrong diagnoses or delays in treatment, which helps people trust doctors and hospitals more. We also show that knowing about these mistakes helps healthcare workers do their jobs better and follow the best lab practices. Need the specifics? Explore: 0:00 – 0:18 Introduction 0:19 – 2:03 Types of lab errors 2:04 – 3:21 Causes of lab errors 3:22 – 4:31 Potential harms if errors in lab results are made 4:32 – 6:06 How can we prevent/ reduce these errors from happening? 6:07 – 6:21 Conclusion This video was made by McMaster University studentsCharissa Cheng, Sara Sadat, Aqsa Rahim and Masihullah Furmuli in collaboration with the Demystifying Research McMaster Program. This video is provided for general and educational information only. Copyright McMaster University 2023 #LabErrors #PatientSafety #ClinicalLab #Healthcare #MedicalEducation #LabAccuracy #professionaldevelopment References: Agarwal, R. (2013). Measurement of errors in clinical laboratories. Indian journal of clinical biochemistry: IJCB, 28(3), 227–234. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12291-013-03... Bayot, M. L., Lopes, J. E., & Naidoo, P. (2023). Clinical Laboratory. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK... De la Salle, B. (2019). Pre‐ and postanalytical errors in haematology. International Journal of Laboratory Hematology, 41(S1), 170–176. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijlh.13007 Exploring Our Fluid Earth. (n.d.). Practices of science: Scientific error. https://manoa.hawaii.edu/exploringour.... (n.d.). Sources of error in lab experiments and laboratory tests. https://felixtrument.ca/sources-error.... O’Driscoll, A. (2023, February 2). Preventive maintenance of LAB equipment. Lab Manager. https://www.labmanager.com/preventive... Plebani, M. (2006). Errors in clinical laboratories or errors in laboratory medicine? Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, 44(6), 750–759. https://doi.org/10.1515/CCLM.2006.123 Plebani, M. (2012). Quality indicators to detect pre-analytical errors in laboratory testing. Clinical Biochemist Reviews, 33(3), 85–88. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... Plebani M. (2015). Diagnostic Errors and Laboratory Medicine -Causes and Strategies. EJIFCC, 26(1), 7–14. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...