Medical misdiagnosis can have serious consequences.
Patients receive delayed care, inappropriate and ineffective treatments and, in worst-case scenarios, death.
The saddest thing is medical misdiagnosis is often an easily preventable error.
In this article, we’ll talk about how sample tracking can reduce misdiagnosis by briefly covering what medical misdiagnosis is, how serious it is, and what you can do to prevent it.
What is medical misdiagnosis?
A medical misdiagnosis occurs when a healthcare provider makes an incorrect diagnosis of a patient’s medical condition.
There are many reasons why a medical misdiagnosis can occur, for example, errors when interpreting test results or miscommunication between healthcare professionals.
Most commonly, misdiagnosis occurs when the healthcare provider receives faulty or incorrect test results.
How common is misdiagnosis?
From urban hospitals to remote, rural clinics, there are millions of samples being collected, processed and analysed annually.
With this volume of samples, errors and accidents are a very real risk.
A study conducted by the NHS found that between 2017 to 2021, more than 8,000 claims were made, citing the primary cause as ‘Failure/ Delay Diagnosis’ or ‘Wrong Diagnosis’.
These numbers show just how important it is to get sample handling right.*
What can be done to reduce misdiagnosis?
Now that we have a figure on misdiagnosis, let’s find out how sample tracking can reduce misdiagnosis.
Sample tracking is an easy way to help drastically reduce misdiagnosis of patients.
By understanding the path that a sample takes from patient to diagnosis, we can find the potential points of error and stop then before they happen.
Sample tracking explained
Sample tracking is a systematic approach to monitoring and documenting the journey of biological specimens.
It’s a critical tool in maintaining sample integrity and ensuring accurate patient identification throughout the testing process.
Current industry challenges
Increasing workloads
Laboratories processing hundreds of samples a day are under pressure to maintain the same level of integrity, despite having to process more samples with fewer resources. The increased workload can cause errors even among the most diligent staff.
Manual data entry
Without automations, handwriting labels and manually entering data introduces another point of risk for human error. Misinterpreted handwriting, even simple keystroke errors, can have far-reaching consequences in a field as sensitive as healthcare.
Benefits of sample tracking
When organisations switch to automated sample tracking, not only can it help to reduce the workload and risk of errors, a case study by Sample360 has shown it’s possible to reduce sample rejection rate to zero.
Here’s what you can expect when you implement a sample tracking system.
Eliminating sample mix-ups
Each sample is assigned a unique identifier and with the use of scanning technology, the risk of sample confusion is virtually erased, ensuring that each specimen is correctly matched to its patient.
Maintaining sample integrity
Since testing and analysis rarely happen in the same place, advanced tracking systems often include sample environment monitoring. This allows you to track whether there were any breaches during the transport of your samples.
Improving traceability and accountability
Since every interaction is logged, from the ordering of the test to its arrival in the lab, you can trace, identify, correct and, in the future, prevent any mistakes from happening twice.
We’ve seen how sample tracking can reduce misdiagnosis and as organisations learn to integrate and use this technology, it’ll continue to become more sophisticated and integrate everything from RFID to AI-powered analytics.
Sample360 is our cutting-edge system that offers real-time monitoring, advanced analytics, and seamless integration with existing laboratory systems.
It’s an invaluable tool for any organisation looking to prevent misdiagnosis.
Choosing to implement a sample tracking system isn’t just about improving laboratory efficiency; it’s about investing in patient safety and healthcare quality of your organisation.
Interested in reducing your risk of misdiagnosis and protecting your samples?
Reach out to our team of professionals and see how Sample360 can do that for you.
Reference
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