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- Title
Prevalence and Clinical Utility of "Incidental" Critical Values Resulting From Critical Care Laboratory Testing.
- Authors
Grieme, Caleb V.; Voss, Dena R.; Olson, Karin E.; Davis, Scott R.; Kulhavy, Jeff; Krasowski, Matthew D.
- Abstract
Objective: Panels of clinical laboratory testing may generate "incidental" critical values from unordered parameters. Existing regulations do not clearly delineate guidelines for handling incidental critical values. The objective of this study was to examine the patterns and clinical utility of incidental critical values at 2 critical care laboratories within an academic medical center. Methods: In this retrospective study, the electronic health record and laboratory information system were reviewed for incidental critical results obtained from blood gas analyzer analysis of whole blood specimens between November 2010 and August 2014. Results: Within the retrospective time period, 9,092 incidental critical results were documented, of which only 11.8% were added to the Conclusion: In this study, at an academic medical center, incidental critical values associated with blood gas analyzers were added on at a low rate and often provided redundant information. Relative to the manual effort involved in care providers' notification and documentation of results, incidental critical values appear to have low clinical utility.
- Subjects
BLOOD gases analysis; CLINICAL chemistry; CRITICAL care medicine; HEMATOLOGY; INTENSIVE care units; LACTIC acid; TIME; RETROSPECTIVE studies; ELECTRONIC health records
- Publication
Laboratory Medicine, 2016, Vol 47, Issue 4, p338
- ISSN
0007-5027
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/labmed/lmw044