Evaluation of Laboratory Request Forms Submitted to the Medical Laboratory Department at A Hospital in Northcentral Nigeria

Laboratory forms are necessary for medical practitioners to communicate their requests and run a diagnosis in the laboratory. Laboratory request forms also serve as the communication medium between the requesting practitioner and the laboratory or the pathologist. Errors or inadequate information on laboratory forms can lead to a significant impact on the total quality of the result as well as the patient outcome. Therefore, laboratory forms must be properly filled out by the requesting practitioner for effective communication. Unfortunately, our experience in the laboratory shows otherwise, and there is a paucity of data to support our daily observation in this center. This is the main justification for this research.    The purpose of this research is to examine the extent to which practitioners at Bingham University Teaching Hospital adequately complete laboratory forms submitted to the medical microbiology laboratory unit of the hospital.
Methods: All laboratory forms submitted along with specimens at the laboratory were examined for completeness by the requesting practitioner. Four major domains consist of the patients’ identifiers, test request details, laboratory information, and the requesting practitioner’s details.  A total of 1,043, consisting of total laboratory requests between January 1st, 2022, and December 31st, 2024.
Results: A total of 1043 completed and submitted to the medical microbiology and parasitology laboratory for laboratory tests were evaluated. All the 1043 laboratory request forms had the patient’s name fully completed. The completion rate for other variables is as follows. Age 93%, gender 93.4%, ward/unit 88%, specimen 85%, hospital number 85%, provisional diagnosis 82%, physician name/signature 92%, Specimen date 96%, time of specimen collection 0%.
Conclusion: Except for the patients’ names, all variables were sub-optimally completed with particular concern for specimen time, a parameter that is extremely important for microbiology specimens. Like the common saying ‘garbage in garbage out’, the need for an accurate and complete completion of laboratory request forms cannot be overemphasized. These findings elucidate the need for effective and continuous quality control mechanisms in our hospitals.