PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Mannion, Heidi AU - Nadder, Teresa TI - Three Alternative Structural Configurations for Phlebotomy: A Comparison of Effectiveness AID - 10.29074/ascls.20.4.210 DP - 2007 Oct 01 TA - American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science PG - 210--214 VI - 20 IP - 4 4099 - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/20/4/210.short 4100 - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/20/4/210.full SO - Clin Lab Sci2007 Oct 01; 20 AB - OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to compare the effectiveness of three alternative structural configurations for inpatient phlebotomy. It was hypothesized that decentralized was less effective when compared to centralized inpatient phlebotomy.DESIGN: A non-experimental prospective survey design was conducted at the institution level. Laboratory managers completed an organizational survey and collected data on inpatient blood specimens during a 30-day data collection period.SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: A random sample (n =31) of hospitals with onsite laboratories in the United States was selected from a database purchased from the Joint Commission on Accreditations of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Effectiveness of the blood collection process was measured by the percentage of specimens rejected during the data collection period.RESULTS: Analysis of variance showed a statistically significant difference in the percentage of specimens rejected for centralized, hybrid, and decentralized phlebotomy configurations [F (2, 28) = 4.27, p = .02] with an effect size of .23. Post-hoc comparison using Tukey's HSD indicated that mean percentage of specimens rejected for centralized phlebotomy (M = .045, SD = 0.36) was significantly different from the decentralized configuration (M = 1.42, SD = 0.92, p = .03).CONCLUSION: Phlebotomy configuration has a significant effect on the percentage of specimens rejected. Based on this outcome, the centralized phlebotomy configuration was found to be more effective when compared to the decentralized configuration.ABBREVIATIONS: ANOVA = analysis of variance; JCAHO = Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; Tukey's HSD = Tukey's honestly significant different; LSD = least significant difference; M = mean; SD = standard deviation