Types and frequency of preanalytical errors in haematology lab

This study was conducted to evaluate the frequency of the preanalytical errors occurring in a haematology laboratory. A retrospective study was conducted by collecting and analyzing data in duration of one year in the haematology section of the laboratory. Data for all the preanalytical variables according to the predefined categories were scanned. Both IPD and OPD patients were segregated. A total of 135808 samples were received in haematology lab during this period, out of which in 1339 samples, preanalytical errors were found, which approximately constituted 1 % of all samples. Highest number of samples were rejected due to misidentification, that is 0.35 % and least number were rejected due to dilution of the samples, that is 0.04 %.