An error management system in a veterinary clinical laboratory.

Error recording and management is an integral part of a clinical laboratory quality management system. Analysis and review of recorded errors lead to corrective and preventive actions through modification of existing processes and, ultimately, to quality improvement. Laboratory errors can be divided into preanalytical, analytical, and postanalytical errors depending on where in the laboratory cycle the errors occur. The purpose of the current report is to introduce an error management system in use in a veterinary diagnostic laboratory as well as to examine the amount and types of error recorded during the 8-year period from 2003 to 2010. Annual error reports generated during this period by the error recording system were reviewed, and annual error rates were calculated. In addition, errors were divided into preanalytical, analytical, postanalytical, and "other" categories, and their frequency was examined. Data were further compared to that available from human diagnostic laboratories. Finally, sigma metrics were calculated for the various error categories. Annual error rates per total number of samples ranged from 1.3% in 2003 to 0.7% in 2010. Preanalytical errors ranged from 52% to 77%, analytical from 4% to 14%, postanalytical from 9% to 21%, and other error from 6% to 19% of total errors. Sigma metrics ranged from 4.1 to 4.7. All data were comparable to that reported in human clinical laboratories. The incremental annual reduction of error shows that use of an error management system led to quality improvement.