ArticleBMJ open quality2019
Reducing delay in laboratory reports for outpatients from 16% to <3% at a non-profit hospital in New Delhi, India.
Article in BMJ open quality, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- From local change to scholarly contribution: lessons from a scoping review of the gaps and pitfalls of QI reports.BMJ open quality · 2026Article
- Establishing Self-Harm Registers: The Role of Process Mapping to Improve Quality of Surveillance Data Globally.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Baseline assessment of staff perception of critical value practices in government hospitals in Kuwait.BMC health services research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In early 2013, several outpatients at Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research in New Delhi, India complained that their laboratory results were not ready at the promised time. We reviewed the data for 3 months and learnt that 16% of outpatient results were not ready when patients returned to receive them. We formed a multidisciplinary team to fix the problem. After conducting a time-and-motion study, process mapping and discussions the team identified two key problems: (1) the laboratory consultant did not have a set time to validate the results and (2) the reasons of delay in laboratory reports were not documented; this made it hard to identify and solve specific reasons. The team decided to set a fixed time for the consultant to verify results and to document reasons for delay in each case. The team used Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles to finalise the verification system and to set up the documentation system. Documentation led to the identification of new problems which were also solved using PDSA cycles. Delay in reports reduced significantly from 16% in March 2013 to less than 3% in a period of 4 months. We have sustained these gains for the past 5 years.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.