Covid-19 pandemic once again exposes the weakest link in laboratory services: Specimen delivery

Abstract

Objective: Reorganization of the emergency department (ED) during the COVID-19 pandemic implied closure of the ED-dedicated laboratory and manual transport of all specimens to the dislocated central laboratory. The impact of such reorganization on laboratory turnaround time (TAT) was examined. Methods: The TAT from blood sampling to specimen reception (TAT1), from specimen reception to test reporting (TAT2), and from sampling to test reporting (TAT3) were compared between the pandemic peak month in 2020 and the same month in 2019. We evaluated whether TAT2 fulfills the recommended 60-minute criteria. Results: A statistically significant difference was observed for all comparisons (P