Effort of influenza specimen collection by clinical laboratory technicians: Role of clinical laboratory technicians in medical care team

Abstract

Since April 1, 2015, amendments to the law for clinical laboratory technicians have allowed these technicians to collect specimens. The sampling rate of nasal and pharyngeal specimens has increased from 17.0% in July 2017 to 30.4% after the law amendment, with an increase rate of only 13.4% in 2 years. In the present study, we aimed to establish a system for efficient and accurate influenza tests wherein an influenza specimen is collected from an outpatient by a clinical laboratory technician instead of an outpatient nurse. The introduction of this system resulted in a decrease in the burden of outpatient nurses, allowing these nurses to concentrate on their primary responsibilities. Clinical laboratory technicians could improve medical care services without extending the time required between examination requests and implementation. Compared with the nurses, the technicians accurately conducted manual creation, training, survey of manual compliance rate, and follow-up on specimen collection. As a result, the compliance rate of correct specimen collection was 100%. This time, the clinical laboratory technician could efficiently and accurately carry out influenza tests by accurately collecting influenza specimens. In the future, we plan to further improve the accuracy of this system by educating and training nurses on accurate specimen collection from ward and emergency patients.