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Abstract

The overall turnaround time (TAT) and the physician interpretation interval (PII) for vascular laboratory (VL) tests are not often reported in the literature. Objective: To audit the TAT and PI on weekdays (WDs) and weekends/holidays (WE). Methods: The first available wait time (WT), the type of test, and the PII for weekday versus weekends/holidays for all patients was noted. Results: The mean WT for inpatients between order and performance of the VL test was 12.48 and 9.81 hours for WD, respectively. The mean PII was 3.23 hours. There was a significant difference in PII between WD (mean 2.30 hours) and WE (16.60 hours; P < .0001). Ninety-nine percent of tests on WD were read within 24 hours compared to 76.5% on WE (P < .0001). Conclusions: Process improvement of the TAT should lead to better customer satisfaction, improve access to test results, and be a part of quality assurance in the VL.

Keywords

wait time turnaround time physician interpretation quality assurance

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Turnaround Time and Timeliness of Physician Interpretation in the Vascular Laboratory

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