The Significance of Paying Attention to Medical Emergencies in Medical Diagnostic Laboratories in Iran

Background: Medical diagnostic laboratories as high-risk environments are often exposed to unpredictable situations such as patient fainting, blood pressure drops, chemical spills, and burns. These life-threatening events defined as medical emergencies and necessitate urgent actions. Hence, determining the most common medical emergencies in medical laboratories, so understanding and planning strategies to effective management seems to be crucial. Objective: This study aimed to investigate medical crises in Iranian medical laboratories. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data collection was performed by a simple random sampling method through electronic and paper questionnaires filled by personnel in private and hospital laboratories in different provinces. Results: The most frequent medical emergencies were patient fainting, staff needle stick, and patient's blood pressure dropping. The occurrence of medical emergencies was 24% and 76% in men and women, respectively. Out of all, treatment was administered at the scene of the accident in 37.1% of cases, and 28.1% were discharged after sampling. Moreover, 51% of the medical diagnostic laboratories had a trolley code, with injection devices and angiocaths as available tools. In 81% of the laboratories, practicing for probable medical emergencies was not possible. A significant relationship was found between the type of client (laboratory personnel or the referring person) and the type of emergency event (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Considering the prevalence and importance of handling medical emergencies in a short time, it is necessary to design training courses for laboratory personnel and expert them to encountering with unpredictable threats in order to help affected individuals.