Science / Medicine : Labs in Doctor Offices Err Often, Study Finds

Medical tests conducted in laboratories in doctors’ offices have high error rates even when they participate in proficiency checks intended to maintain quality, according to a report released last week.

The team of pathologists from Temple University School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania studied 67 office labs for a year or more to see how well the labs performed six standard medical tests. They found 11 labs had error rates of 5% or less, 39 labs had error rates of 5% to 20%, and 17 labs had rates over 20%. But more startlingly, the researchers found that the error rates did not drop with time, and in fact were highest during the fourth quarterly proficiency test.

Two of the most common mistakes the labs made were failures to confirm results of a test that showed protein present in urine and to perform Gram’s stain, a “multi-step, exacting procedure” for identifying bacteria.

The issue is of concern because “at least 20% of laboratory testing performed in the United States occurs in physicians’ offices,” said three researchers writing in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.