Quality Data Collection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Quality Data Collection - Essay Example Lack of proper data collection strategies results in wastage of hospital and patients resources since some results done are insignificant while others are annihilated. This paper focuses on data collection tools in emergency departments for blood culturing and the tools used in critical value reporting. The paper also elucidates on how the tools operate and compares how the tools operate. Improvement in data collection is vital for apposite analysis, diagnosis, treatment, and running of health amenities. Patience in the emergency department is often febrile and thus blood cultures are often obtained devoid of following the guidelines. However, most blood cultures ordered from the emergency departments are rarely utilized in management of the patient’s health. They thus end up being a source of unnecessary costs to the patients as well as the hospital. Another factor that declines the services of most community hospitals is excessive delays in defining and reporting of critical value results. Critical laboratory values have imperative significance on determining prompt treatment or actions that health provider ought to undertake. Most decisions and patient diagnosis depend on analysis of laboratory reports thus improvement in organization of laboratory services can improve on service provision. It is therefore vital to improve on timelines of reporting critical values (Tintinalli, et al, 2004). Blood Culture Contamination Rate in the Emergency Department Blood cultures are crucial in detecting conditions such as sepsis in the emergency departments. However, various researches show that most hospitals do not use blood culture results efficiently in clinical management of patients. The main problem in blood culturing is the inability to differentiate between contaminated cultures with true bacteraemia (Hall, & Lyman, 2006). To reduce errors and increase utilization of blood culture results, it is important to improve on tools used in monitoring performance information. It is recommendable that culture be collected only when clinically required. It is also important to use proper sampling techniques to prevent contamination. Tools used in blood culturing in the emergency department include culture bottle and needles. Enhanced collection of uncontaminated blood cultures is vital and can be done by proper disinfection of surfaces before drawing blood samples as well as using sterilized culture bottles. Use of surgical needles for blood sampling leads to contamination especially if proper sterilization is not done on the patients skin (Tintinalli, et al, 2004). Proper management of the data obtained after blood culturing is fundamental in improving the significance of the samples in management of emergencies. Another tool used to collect blood culture in the emergency department is automated blood culture technology that is capable of differentiating between positive and negative culture (Tintinalli, et al, 2004; Hall & Lyman, 2006). Crit ical Value Reporting Clinical value reporting provides mechanism for determining and reporting critical laboratory reports requiring urgent response. Critical values are determined differently by different hospitals with most choosing to use published values. Others make use of non-laboratory medical staff advice while others use inter-laboratory comparison, manufacturer proposals, or conduct internal studies to come up with their own