Strategies to shorten turnaround time in outpatient laboratory

Turnaround time (TAT) is one of the most important indicators of laboratory quality. For the outpatient routine chemistry tests whose results are checked by clinicians on the same day, we set a quality goal that >90% of these samples should be reported within 60 min. As more than 20% of the samples failed to achieve this goal in 2020, we introduced an additional autoanalyzer and a real-time monitoring system to improve this rate.

As the TAT of the pre-analytical phase is the greatest contributor to TAT, we divided it into sampling, sample transport, and sample preparation times. An additional autoanalyzer was introduced, and its effect on TAT improvement was evaluated with the TAT data of June and July 2020. A real-time monitoring system was introduced to sort delayed samples, and its effect was assessed with the TAT data of June and July 2021. TAT data from December 2019 to January 2020 were set as baseline controls.

The preparation time comprised the largest proportion of TAT. Although there was a slight decrease in overall TAT after the introduction of the above two strategies, the target TAT achievement rate increased significantly from 78.5% to 88.7% (p < 0.001).

We checked the cause of TAT prolongation and introduced new strategies to improve it. The addition of an autoanalyzer per se was not so effective but was better when combined with the real-time monitoring system. Such strategies would increase the quality of the laboratory services.