Baseline assessment of staff perception of critical value practices in government hospitals in Kuwait

ALFadhalah, Talal; Al Mudaf, Buthaina; Al Tawalah, Haya; Al Fouzan, Wadha A.; Al Salem, Gheed; Alghanim, Hanaa A.; Ibrahim, Samaa Zenhom; Elamir, Hossam; Al Kharji, Hamad

doi:10.1186/s12913-022-08329-z

BMC Health Services Research

Table 4 Critical Values for Tests Commonly Performed at Participating Hospitals

From: Baseline assessment of staff perception of critical value practices in government hospitals in Kuwait

	Hospital A				Hospital B				Hospital C				Hospital D				Hospital E				p	Total
	V	N	n	%	V	N	n	%	V	N	n	%	V	N	n	%	V	N	n	%		N	n	%
Potassium
Lower Limit	2.5	1	0	0.0	2.5	27	25	92.6	2.8	15	1	6.7	2.5	4	0	0.0	2.8	37	34	91.9	< .001	84	60	71.0
Upper Limit	6.6	1	0	0.0	6.5	27	25	92.6	6.2	14	3	21.4	6.5	4	0	0.0	6.5	38	36	94.7	< .001	84	64	76.2
Unit	mmol/L	2	2	100	mmol/L	24	24	100	mmol/L	31	30	96.8	mmol/L	2	2	100	mmol/L	45	45	100	.566	104	103	99.0
Sodium
Lower Limit	120	1	1	100	120	27	25	92.6	120	14	11	78.6	120	4	0	0.0	120	38	34	89.5	.001	84	71	84.5
Upper Limit	160	1	1	100	160	27	25	92.6	160	14	11	78.6	160	4	0	0.0	160	38	36	94.7	< .001	84	73	86.9
Unit	mmol/L	2	2	100	mmol/L	23	23	100	mmol/L	31	23	74.2	mmol/L	2	2	100	mmol/L	45	45	100	.001	103	95	92.2
Magnesium
Lower Limit	0.4	1	0	0.0	0.4	25	24	96.0	0.5	12	11	91.7	0.4	2	0	0.0	0.5	36	36	100	< .001	76	71	93.4
Upper Limit	None	0	0	0.0	3.7	25	24	96.0	1.9	12	1	8.3	None	0	0	0.0	1.9	37	34	91.9	< .001	74	59	79.7
Unit	mmol/L	2	2	100	mmol/L	23	23	100	mmol/L	30	19	63.3	mmol/L	2	2	100	mmol/L	43	43	100	< .001	100	89	89.0
Calcium
Lower Limit	1.65	1	0	0.0	1.5	27	25	92.6	1.5	14	3	21.4	1.8	3	0	0.0	1.5	37	36	97.3	< .001	82	64	78.0
Upper Limit	3.25	1	1	100	3.5	27	24	88.9	3.2	15	1	6.7	3.5	2	0	0.0	3.2	37	36	97.3	< .001	82	62	75.6
Unit	mmol/L	1	1	100	mmol/L	24	24	100	mmol/L	29	18	62.1	mmol/L	2	2	100	mmol/L	43	43	100	< .001	99	88	88.9
Phosphorous
Lower Limit	0.32	1	1	100	0.36	23	22	95.7	None	0	0	0.0	0.3	0	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	> .999	24	23	95.8
Upper Limit	None	0	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	2.9	0	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0		0	0	0.0
Unit	mmol/L	2	2	100	mmol/L	20	20	100	None	0	0	0.0	mmol/L	0	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0		22	22	100
Bilirubin
Upper Limit	None	0	0	0.0	340	25	23	92.0	239	14	2	14.3	25	2	1	50.0	299	17	1	5.9	< .001	58	27	46.6
Unit	None	0	0	0.0	µmol/L	23	0	0.0	mmol/L	23	6	26.1	µmol/L	1	0	0.0	mmol/L	25	22	88.0	< .001	72	28	38.9
BUN
Upper Limit	None	0	0	0.0	R	0	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	28.56	28	19	67.9		28	19	67.9
Unit	None	0	0	0.0	R	0	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	None	0	0	100	mmol/L	28	26	92.9		28	26	92.9
Creatinine
Upper Limit	650	1	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	350	3	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0		4	0	0.0
Unit	µmol/L	2	2	100	None	0	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	µmol/L	1	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	.333	3	2	66.7
PH
Lower Limit	None	0	0	0.0	R	0	0	0.0	7.2	7	0	0.0	None	0	0	25.0	7.2	35	29	82.9	< .001	42	29	69.0
Upper Limit	None	0	0	0.0	R	0	0	0.0	7.5	7	6	85.7	None	0	0	0.0	7.6	35	25	71.4	.654	42	31	73.8
PO2
Lower Limit	None	0	0	0.0	R	0	0	0.0	6.33	7	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	5.32	35	29	82.9	< .001	42	29	69.0
Unit	None	0	0	0.0	R	0	0	0.0	Kpa	15	6	40.0	None	0	0	0.0	Kpa	28	28	100	< .001	43	34	79.1
PCO2
Lower Limit	None	0	0	0.0	R	0	0	0.0	2.66	7	6	85.7	2.5	0	0	0.0	2.66	35	34	97.1	.309	42	40	95.2
Upper Limit	None	0	0	0.0	R	0	0	0.0	8.30	7	0	0.0	8.9	0	0	0.0	8.00	34	33	97.1	< .001	41	33	80.5
Unit	None	0	0	0.0	R	0	0	0.0	Kpa	15	6	40.0	Kpa	1	1	100	Kpa	32	32	100	< .001	48	39	81.3
Bicarbonate
Lower Limit	None	0	0	0.0	10	19	18	94.7	10	11	10	90.9	10	0	0	0.0	10	31	31	100	.242	61	59	96.7
Upper Limit	None	0	0	0.0	40	20	19	95.0	40	11	10	90.9	40	0	0	0.0	40	30	29	96.7	.755	61	58	95.1
Unit	None	0	0	0.0	mmol/L	19	19	100	mmol/L	19	17	89.5	mmol/L	1	1	100	mmol/L	29	26	89.7	.537	68	63	92.6
Neutrophil
Lower Limit	1	0	0	0.0	0.5	8	7	87.5	1	5	0	0.0	1	15	11	73.3	None	0	0	0.0	.004	28	18	64.3
Unit	10⁹/L	1	0	0.0	10⁹/L	8	7	87.5	10⁹/L	24	6	25.0	10⁹/L	11	10	90.0	None	0	0	0.0	< .001	44	23	52.3
Hemoglobin
Lower Limit	70	1	1	100	70	11	1	9.1	60	13	4	30.8	6.5	26	2	7.7	60	8	4	50.0	.010	59	12	20.3
Upper Limit	None	0	0	0.0	190	12	8	66.7	200	13	3	23.1	20	27	1	3.7	200	8	4	50.0	< .001	60	16	26.7
Unit	g/L	1	1	100	g/L	24	22	91.7	g/L	51	51	100	g/L	11	11	100	g/L	57	49	86	.033	144	134	93.1
Platelet
Lower Limit	50	1	1	100	20	3	1	33.3	30	13	0	0.0	20	26	7	26.9	20	14	12	85.7	< .001	57	21	36.8
Upper Limit	None	0	0	0.0	1000	9	0	0.0	1500	14	0	0.0	1000	25	19	76.0	1500	14	13	92.9	< .001	62	32	51.6
Unit (10⁹/L)	10⁹/L	1	0	0.0	10⁹/L	25	19	76.0	10⁹/L	44	14	31.8	10¹²/L	10	0	0.0	10⁹/L	54	0	0.0	< .001	124	33	26.6
aPTT
Upper Limit	100	0	0	0.0	120	0	0	0.0	70	7	0	0.0	120	20	8	40.0	70	3	0	0.0	.110	30	8	26.7
Unit	Sec	1	1	100	Sec	24	19	79.2	Sec	30	30	100	Sec	23	13	56.5	Sec	53	53	100	< .001	131	116	88.5
PT
Upper Limit	None	0	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	20	3	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	20	2	0	0.0		5	0	0.0
Unit	None	0	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	Sec	25	22	88.0	None	0	0	0.0	Sec	56	55	98.2	.085	81	77	95.1
INR
Upper Limit	5	0	0	0.0	6.0	1	0	0.0	None	0	0	0.0	4.5	22	9	40.9	3	1	1	100	> .999	24	9	37.5

V: Critical values as per hospital policy, N: Valid responses, n: Correct responses, %: Percentage of correct responses
aPTT Activated partial thromboplastin time, PT Prothrombin time, INR International normalisation ratio, Sec Seconds
R Retired (Critical value was removed from lab policy), p: p-value (statistically significant if p ≤ .05, highly significant if p ≤ .001)

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