[Active laboratory consultation for the clinical supporting system in the general hospital]

As an active laboratory-initiated consultation, we describe the patient-oriented laboratory comment, a kind of interpretative report, on selected abnormal test results. Appropriate laboratory data check and clinical finding checks are necessary as a precondition for effectively reporting laboratory comments. Over the past five years, we reported 303 laboratory comments on hematologic and chemical test results. Clinical finding checks were performed on only 0.05% of the total number of these tests, but the frequency of reported laboratory comments after clinical finding checks were 6.3% in chemical test results and 47.1% in hematologic test results. As in our previous report, 33% of laboratory comments had an effect on diagnosis and treatment. For effective laboratory-initiated consultation, we must establish standard methods for laboratory data check and for selection of clinical finding checks. In addition, not only consultation but liaison service is needed for the clinical laboratory.