Comparison of the time required for manual (visually read) and semi-automated POCT urinalysis and pregnancy testing with associated electronic medical record (EMR) transcription errors

•A 0.9% error rate was found for manual documentation of UA testing.•A high rate of non-documentation of results was found in outpatient clinics.•Non-documentation rate was 10.5–19.6% for manual UA and 20.3–25.4% for manual UPT.•Semi-automated testing interfaced to EMR would have greatly reduced the errors. POCT urinalysis (UA) and urine pregnancy tests (UPT) are routinely performed in obstetrics and gynecology (Ob/Gyn) clinics by dipstick and pregnancy test kit methods respectively. In this study, we compared the time, efficiency and accuracy of these tests using manual, visually read methods and a semi-automated analyzer that was not interfaced to the EMR. We prospectively enrolled 2525 patients at five Ob/Gyn clinics. Urine samples were tested using three different dipsticks for UA (2, 7 and 10 test pads) and the Sure-Vue™ urine pregnancy test kit. The samples were analyzed on the CLINITEK Status® Connect System and results compared for time taken and errors in results’ transcription. Using the CLINITEK Status Connect System, average test time and average total test time for UA dipsticks 7 and 10 test pads was significantly less than the manual, visually read method (0.77 and 0.64 min, respectively; p