Pre-analytical quality indicators in laboratory medicine: Performance of laboratories participating in the IFCC working group "Laboratory Errors and Patient Safety" project.

Quality indicators (QIs) are key tools for improving the quality of laboratory services, by reducing error rates and safeguarding patient safety. A body of accumulated evidence confirms the relevance of QIs and their impact on the overall quality of laboratory information. The consensus achieved on a list of "harmonized" QIs, along with the system used for data collection and reporting throughout an international benchmarking programme, has enabled achieving realistic performance targets, based on knowledge of the state-of-the-art. Data collected in 2017 and 2018 have been analyzed and performance measures obtained by laboratories participating in the project are summarized in the present article. The laboratory performance measures have been classified into three levels (optimum, desirable or minimum) in agreement with the widely accepted model of analytical quality specifications.