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Policies and practices in the field of laboratory hematology in Croatia – a current overview and call for improvement

  • Vanja Radišić Biljak , Ivana Lapić ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Valentina Vidranski , Ivona Herceg , Franciska Tomić , Brankica Šimac , Martina Horvat , Helena Čičak , Dora Vuljanić , Adrijana Dorotić and Ana Nikler

Abstract

Objectives

In 2019 The Croatian Working Group for Laboratory Hematology, on behalf of the Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine, wanted to explore the background in field of laboratory hematology routine practice among Croatian laboratories in order to develop future strategies for producing national recommendations, if needed.

Methods

During April and May 2019, a comprehensive survey covering all main parts of the total testing process within the field of laboratory hematology among Croatian medical laboratories was conducted. The survey comprised 49 inquiries. Data was collected using Survey Monkey (Palo Alto, CA, USA). All collected data was anonymized.

Results

The response rate was 72%. There is still a substantial number of laboratories that have only three-part differential hematology analyzers (9%). Furthermore, a very high number of laboratories did not perform analyzer verification prior to implementation into routine work (31%). Out of those who have verified their analyzers, a diversity of guidelines and recommendations were used. Nearly 10% of the laboratories do not have a defined policy regarding specimen rejection. The majority of the participants perform internal quality control daily (83%), however, only 51% of respondents evaluate the agreement between different hematology analyzers on daily basis. Although more than 90% of Croatian laboratories have a defined policy regarding specimen rejection, only 61% of respondents continuously monitor quality indicators in routine practice.

Conclusions

The survey revealed substantial differences in all aspects of laboratory hematology practices among Croatian medical laboratories, indicating the need for universal recommendations at the national level.


Corresponding author: Ivana Lapić, Working Group for Laboratory Hematology of the Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia; and Department of Laboratory Diagnostics, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Kišpatićeva 12, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, Phone: +385981767367, E-mail:
Vanja Radišić Biljak and Ivana Lapić contributed equally to this work.
  1. Research funding: None declared.

  2. Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.

  4. Informed consent: Participants were notified of research and future data publishing and by completing the survey, implicitly granted their informed consent.

  5. Ethical approval: The local Institutional Review Board deemed the study exempt from review.

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Received: 2021-09-20
Accepted: 2021-11-18
Published Online: 2021-12-01
Published in Print: 2022-01-27

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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