Showing posts with label Medical Laboratory Observer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medical Laboratory Observer. Show all posts

13 September 2024 (Friday) - Another Rant

Here’s something from Medical Laboratory Observer. An article about mistakes in diagnostic error.
According to ECRI (an American healthcare provider) out of a thousand errors reviewed:
 
  • Nearly 70 percent of errors occurred during the testing process – including when healthcare staff are ordering, collecting, processing, obtaining results, or communicating results.

  • Twelve percent of errors occurred in the monitoring and follow-up phase; with nearly nine percent during the referral and consultation phase.
     
  • Of errors that occurred during testing, more than 23 percent were a result of a technical or processing error, like the misuse of testing equipment, a poorly processed specimen, or a clinician lacking the proper skill to conduct the test
     
  • Another 20 percent of testing errors were a result of mixed-up samples, mislabeled specimens, and tests performed on the wrong patient.
 
Without wishing to belittle the article it is the sort of thing that boils my piss (to be frank). Very quick to point out mistakes, but rather thin on details of exactly what these mistakes were, their severity, and offering absolutely nothing in the way of lessons learned from those mistakes.
 
I’m left wondering why this article was even published; if not to knock healthcare. It's prompted me to include a new label category for the articles I put on here.

10 August 2024 (Saturday) - Pre Eclampsia

The nice people at the Medical Laboratory Observer sent me a rather good little article about pre-eclampsia today, You can read it by clicking here.

It was a rather good refresher…

11 December 2023 (Monday) - ESR

Here’s something about a new ESR analyser that came via the nice people at the Medical Laboratory Observer. There are those who are incredibly scathing about the ESR. There are those who call it a totally non-specific test and had long since been superseded by all sorts of other tests.
However I can remember my old GP singing the praises of the ESR. He told me he had a few minutes with a patient. Were they ill? Were they looking to get a sick note? He told me that given a high ESR he knows he has to investigate further, but given a normal result, he can tell the patient to clear off with a clear conscience.
In the hospital setting the ESR is of limited use (at best), but for the GP it is invaluable. And that’s why we keep on doing them.

7 December 2023 (Thursday) - Medical Laboratory Observer

I’ve signed up to the mailing list of the Medical Laboratory Observer. You can do so by clicking here.
The first update I got mentioned screening tests for multiple sclerosis and race-related reference ranges for PSA…
This might be a useful resource. Time will tell; it always does.