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Medicina & Laboratorio

2011, Number 07-08

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Medicina & Laboratorio 2011; 17 (07-08)

Critical values in the clinical laboratory: from theory to practice

Campuzano MG

Language: Spanish
References: 66
Page: 331-350
PDF size: 641.28 Kb.


ABSTRACT

Regardless of why the doctor orders a diagnostic test, at the end of the process the clinical laboratory generates a written report that is handed to the patient by the clinical laboratories or is incorporated into the medical records in hospital clinical laboratories. Critical values, misnamed panic values, are results that express a medical situation that may jeopardize the patient’s life if not properly and timely intervened, hence the need to be informed immediately after being detected to the doctor who requested them. Policy and management of critical values is a mandatory requirement in clinical laboratories in developed countries and is part of accreditation and quality processes in developing countries, as in Colombia, unfortunately very poorly developed in clinical laboratories in the country. Once the clinical laboratory chooses to establish a critical values program, it must clearly establish a policy of critical values, the list of tests with their respective critical values, the mechanisms, and those responsible for informing the critical values when they occur; furthermore, it must implement internal mechanisms for assessing and following-up the critical values policy as a mechanism that requires continuous improvement. This module presents the essential elements to establish a critical values program in a clinical laboratory, regardless of its level of complexity and location, either outpatient or inpatient. The politics for critical values, more than a regulation or a tool for continuous improvement in the clinical laboratory: is a right for the patients.


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