English 
Italian DOCUMENTI SIBIOC - SIBioC Documents
Volume:
Biochimica Clinica 2018; 42(2) 167-179
Pubblicato on-line:
March 2, 2018
DOI:
10.19186/BC_2018.015
Raccomandazioni per l’identificazione e la gestione dei risultati critici nei laboratori clinici
AUTORI
1UOC di Medicina di Laboratorio, Azienda Ospedaliera-Università di Padova, Italia
2Laboratorio Analisi Istituto Fiorentino Cura e Assistenza IFCA, Firenze
3IRCCS Galeazzi e Università Vita e Salute San Raffaele, Milano
4UO Laboratorio Centrale di Analisi Chimico Cliniche, ASST-Spedali Civili, Brescia
5Laboratorio di Patologia Clinica, Ospedale di Merano
6Laboratorio Analisi Chimico-Cliniche, Azienda Ospedaliera “Luigi Sacco”, Milano
7Servizio di Medicina di Laboratorio IRCCS MultiMedica, Milano
8Sezione di Biochimica Clinica, Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Biomedicina e Movimento, Università degli Studi di Verona
9Servizio di Medicina di Laboratorio, Ospedale San Raffaele, Milano
10Laboratorio di Patologia Clinica, Ospedale di Arzignano, Arzignano, VI
11Laboratorio di Patologia Clinica, Dipartimento di Medicina di Laboratorio, Azienda Ospedaliera Santa Maria degli Angeli, Pordenone
12Struttura Organizzativa Dipartimentale “Sicurezza e Qualità in Laboratorio” AOU-Careggi, FI
13Centro Gestione Rischio Clinico e Sicurezza del Paziente della Regione Toscana
14Laboratori Analisi AULSS n 8 Berica, Vicenza, Italia
ABSTRACT
Recommendations for the detection and management of critical results in clinical laboratories
Critical results, (also known as panic or alarm results) identify a laboratory test result associated with a serious risk for the patient’s health, requiring immediate communication to the physician to establish appropriate therapeutic interventions. The adoption of an efficient procedure for the communication of critical values/results is crucial for clinical, ethical, organizational reasons, because it is a requirement for laboratory accreditiation and because of potential legal consequences related to the lack of notification of harmful laboratory results. In 2008, the Italian Society of Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine (SIBioC) published its first consensus-based recommendation for the detection and management of critical values in clinical laboratories, with the aim to improve the implementation of standardized and universally accepted procedures, promoting an essential policy toward rational and efficient solutions to this issue. These new recommendations represent a complete review of the first document. Using the same consensus conference method between experts of scientific societies, the main aspects of clinical risk, patient safety and legal liability of health care workers were re-considered. The SIBioC and the Italian Society of Laboratory Medicine (SIPMeL), Intersociety Study Group on Standardization of extra-analytical variability of laboratory results, together with the Italian Society of Ergonomics and Human Factors (SIE) collaboration, issued the present join document.