Background: We have investigated the causes of incomplete pathology
request forms received at our clinical chemistry laboratory. Based on a request form
audit we found that the data most frequently missing from a pathology request form
was the doctor's name, unique identification provider number, or signature.
Methods: We examined the effect of issuing the requesting doctors with
self-inking stamps personalized with their name and a unique provider number.
Results: The intervention led to an immediate and sustained improvement
in compliance, with the proportion of incomplete forms falling from 43% to 2%. In
contrast, distribution of a memorandum alone made no significant change to the number
of pathology request forms with incomplete data arriving at the laboratory.
Conclusion: This study describes a simple and low-cost solution to one
of the causes of incomplete pathology request forms. It also demonstrates the
effectiveness of systems improvement in health care.
