Evaluation of critical values reporting policy among governmental hospitals in Al-Qassim Province, KSA

Effective critical value reporting is evidence of Good Laboratory Practice to ensure patient safety. The aim of the study is to evaluate the current performance of the critical value reporting policy across the governmental hospitals in Qassim, KSA and provide recommendations for future improvement. A survey was sent online included a set of questions covering the whole process. 386 web-based questionnaires were returned, and the majority confirmed the presence of written policy with most of staff received orientation about with presence of a defined critical values list that differ significantly in the number of tests included and sources of the pre-settled critical values. Although the majority confirmed documentation of the critical results reporting but there is a significant difference in how they document it. Timely reporting of critical results is respected but differs significantly in a predefined time interval. While 90.9% confirmed the improvement of the related quality indicators concerning critical results reporting, they showed different indicators for monitoring. Although the critical policy is a mandatory accreditation bodies requirement, it shows high variability concerning the whole practices. The study offered an insight into some challenges encounter the process and insisted on the importance of presence of nationally standardized established policy needed to be adopted across the whole hospitals with respect to different clinical settings to ensure best handling of critical results.