Trend analysis of laboratory specimen rejection rates at Debre Markos comprehensive specialized hospital, North West Ethiopia: Four-years document review

Background : Clinical laboratory errors can be classified into pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical phases. The majority of laboratory errors originate from the manually intensive activities of the pre-analytical phase, primarily those related to the collection, handling, transportation, preparation, and storage of diagnostic specimens. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the trend of laboratory specimen rejection rates at a specialized hospital in Ethiopia. Method : A four-year document review was conducted at Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital Laboratory from January 2020 to December 2023 to assess trends in the laboratory specimen rejection rate. Records of referred specimens for laboratory tests such as viral load, CD4 count, GeneXpert, and early infant diagnosis were included and reviewed. Finally, statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 22.0 software. Results: Of the total 35,673 specimens submitted to the Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Laboratory from January 2020 to December 2023, 560 were rejected, resulting in an overall laboratory specimen rejection rate of 1.57%. The annual rejection rates were 2.30%, 1.59%, 1.42%, and 1.26%, respectively, from 2020 to 2023. Conclusion: Although the trends of laboratory specimen rejection rates among referred specimens was gradually improved from 2020 to 2023, still needs more interventions until it meets to the standard specimen rejection rate of 0.3%.