Turnaround Time and Timeliness of Physician Interpretation in the Vascular Laboratory

The overall turnaround time (TAT) and the physician interpretation interval (PII) for vascular laboratory (VL) tests are not often reported in the literature. Objective: To audit the TAT and PI on weekdays (WDs) and weekends/holidays (WE). Methods: The first available wait time (WT), the type of test, and the PII for weekday versus weekends/holidays for all patients was noted. Results: The mean WT for inpatients between order and performance of the VL test was 12.48 and 9.81 hours for WD, respectively. The mean PII was 3.23 hours. There was a significant difference in PII between WD (mean 2.30 hours) and WE (16.60 hours; P < .0001). Ninety-nine percent of tests on WD were read within 24 hours compared to 76.5% on WE ( P < .0001). Conclusions: Process improvement of the TAT should lead to better customer satisfaction, improve access to test results, and be a part of quality assurance in the VL.