The quality and scope of information provided by medical laboratories to patients before laboratory testing: Survey of the Working Group for Patient Preparation of the Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine

• Inadequate patient preparation can cause diagnostic errors.
• Instructions for patient preparation are not standardized across medical laboratories in Croatia.
• Instructions for therapeutic drug monitoring, coagulation, and endocrinology are insufficient.
• An incorrect recommendation about the container for 24-h urine is identified as the potential source of laboratory errors.

IntroductionThe aim of this work was to evaluate to what extent the scope and content of information provided to patients is standardized across medical biochemistry laboratories in Croatia.Materials and methodsTwo on-line self-report surveys were sent out: Survey A regarding attitudes on importance of patient preparation and Survey B on the contents of patient preparation instructions.Results13/118 laboratories (11%) do not provide written instructions to patients on how to prepare for laboratory testing, and 36 (40%) do not include information about water intake in their instructions. Only half of laboratories provide instructions for prostate-specific antigen (53.8%), female sex hormones (53.7%) and therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) (52.5%). Inadequate information about fasting status (55.0%) and 24 hour urine collection (77.9%) were frequent errors with high severity and were associated with the greatest potential to cause patient harm.ConclusionsLaboratory professionals in Croatia have a positive attitude towards the importance of patient preparation for laboratory testing. However, the information for laboratory testing is not standardized and frequently lacks guidance for tests related to TDM, coagulation and endocrinology. This study highlights the need for standardized, updated and evidence-based recommendations for patient preparation in order to minimize the risk for patients.