Physicians' knowledge of and attitudes toward ordering laboratory tests

Abstract

Introduction: it is a reality today that 70 % of the decisions made by the physician in relation to the diagnosis and treatment of diseases are based on laboratory results. The role of the physician in the laboratory has an impact on the pre-analytical phase, which is where more than 70 % of the errors that occur in the laboratory are found.

Objective: during the present study, we evaluated the knowledge and attitudes of physicians regarding the request for laboratory tests.

Methods: an exploratory, quantitative research study was conducted. A total of 66 physicians completed the questionnaire, and the variable studied was the “attitude of health professionals towards the indications for a laboratory examination”. More than half of the participants (n=38; 57,6 %) had a proactive attitude, and the rest had a passive attitude. 

Results: it was found that there is a passive attitude towards the request for laboratory tests in 42,4 % of the physicians surveyed, in the literature there were no similar studies that evaluate this finding, many of the studies found evaluate pre-analytical variables that occur within the laboratory).

Conclusions: more studies are needed to assess the impact of physicians' knowledge and attitudes towards requesting examinations.