Panorama de la seguridad del paciente en los laboratorios clínicos de México

Abstract

Clinical laboratories are a vital component of health services because they approach to patients throughout the entire care process. However, the real impact of laboratory errors on patient safety is unknown, because there is little research and records about errors that occur in the total analysis process of laboratories in Mexico. Compliance with the essential actions for patient safety stated by Mexican government, leads us to analyze the degree to which we can cover the patient’s safety requirements with the Official Mexican Regulations, to detect opportunities for improvement and ensure the safety of patients using laboratory diagnostic services. In this review, a compilation of the most frequent types of laboratory errors in the literature, proposals to address them and some strategies to promote the culture of patient safety in clinical laboratories in Mexico are presented.