Document control practices in 120 clinical laboratories

A variety of document control practices are required of clinical laboratories by US regulation, laboratory accreditors, and standard-setting organizations.

To determine how faithfully document control is being implemented in practice and whether particular approaches to document control result in better levels of compliance.

Contemporaneous, structured audit of 8814 documents used in 120 laboratories for conformance with 6 generally accepted document control requirements: available, authorized, current, reviewed by management, reviewed by staff, and archived.

Of the 8814 documents, 3113 (35%) fulfilled all 6 document control requirements. The requirement fulfilled most frequently was availability of the document at all shifts and locations (8564 documents; 97%). Only 4407 (50%) of documents fulfilled Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment requirements for being properly archived after updating or discontinuation. Policies and procedures were more likely to fulfill document control requirements than forms and work aids. Documents tended to be better controlled in some laboratory sections (eg, transfusion service) than in others (eg, microbiology and client services). We could not identify document control practices significantly associated with higher compliance rates.

Most laboratories are not meeting regulatory and accreditation requirements related to control of documents. It is not clear whether control failures have any impact on the quality of laboratory results or patient outcomes.