Monitoring and improvement of intralaboratory turnaround time at the university hospital campus bio-medico in Rome.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the intralaboratory turnaround time (TAT) of the emergency samples at the laboratory of the university hospital Campus Bio-Medico. TAT for urgent tests was recorded during 7 months after the introduction of a system allowing TAT monitoring in real-time, from January to July 2012. TAT analysis was performed through five consecutive phases. At the end of each phase, TAT was evaluated and a corrective strategy, if needed, was introduced. The TAT evaluation at the end of phase I (January-March 2012) showed that all urgent tests were in extra-time. From the phase II (April 2012) to the phase IV (June 2012), three different consecutive corrective strategies, related to preanalytical and analytical phases were implemented. Each corrective action determined TAT improvement. In the last phase of the study (July 2012), no further corrective strategies were added, but a pure observation activity was decided to give time to the laboratory staff to adapt to changes introduced before. The intralaboratory TAT can improve through the introduction of TAT monitoring systems, gradual and step-by-step changes in sample management and staff adhesion to and awareness of the project.