Why does it take so long to get test results from things like blood work when you go to the emergency room at a hospital
In: Biology
Depends on the test; for something super-common (and urgent) like a Complete Blood Count or Basic Metabolic Panel, the results will be ready in a few minutes, because those tests can be run on machines right there in the ER. For others, they’ll need to go to the pathology lab, and some tests just take time to run. (For a culture, that’ll take *days*.)
Think about the nu mber of patients in a hospital, and the amount of tests needed! if its busy where you are in the hosp? chances are its busy thru out! they order blood work alot.its hard to wait! but we must.
General rule of thumb: the longer you’re waiting in the ER, the less screwed you are. If you’re getting a lot of results back quickly, you should probably buckle up.
In all likelihood, the actual test took very little time to perform. What you are likely waiting around for is the samples to make it from a phlebotomist’s cart all the way down to the lab, where they need to be checked in, delivered to the correct department, and possibly spun down to separate the blood. Some tests are done within seconds, while others may take an hour or more. Then even after the lab scientists review the results and release them, it’s probably a good bit of time before a doctor has time to review the results, decide how urgently they need to get back to you based on the severity of your condition and the condition of their other patients, and then implement a plan of care based on your results. All in all, there are a lot of moving parts that simply take time!
Lab tech here. For ER samples, we try to keep it under 30min turn around time from the time we get the sample for tests we run routinely. Some tests take a bit longer, but the majority of stuff we run for the ER should result within an hour of the sample being collected (assuming it’s immediately labeled and sent to the lab).
Issues arise if there are labeling issues, sample integrity issues, or dilutions/repeat testing involved.
The biggest rate limiting step is the number of staff in the ER available to review the results and come let you know. If a bad code comes in, most staff, including docs, are going to be prioritizing the code.
Er staff are constantly performing a juggling act with ever changing priorities. Being low on the list sucks because it takes longer, but it generally means you’re in better shape than most people there.
Phlebotomist/lab tech here: Frequently we’re not interested in the red or white blood cells in a blood sample nor the blood as a whole, but what’s in the plasma. The liquid part of the blood that functions as a the transport medium for everything but oxygen and co2. So you have to centrifuge it, spin it very fast for quite a while, to separate the blood. 10-15 minutes minimum usually.
For a lot of tests the platelets in your blood (clotting elements) can interfere with the tests or actually damage the equipment. For those, you have wait for the blood to clot before you can put it in the spin. Another 20-30 minutes. What’s left is called serum.
Some tests can also require a spin, separate, spin again process. Particularly coagulation tests. Which can take 30+ minutes of just spinning, much less processing and testing.
Other tests, particularly cultures, can take time to prepare. The amount of bacteria in the blood that would be enough to cause illness isn’t detectable to the testing equipment, so you literally just put the blood in a nutrient solution and let it sit so the bacteria can multiply enough to be detectable.
All of those are minimum times, then add in the human times. The time to draw the blood, transport it to the proper location, get a technician and machine free to start the process and be available for each process step. And then to get the information to the doc, time for them to interpret the data, and then get back to you with the results. Some tests can be done instantly, usually called Point of Care testing, but many cannot.
Generally speaking, it doesn’t.
Turn-around times for most hospital labs dealing with high throughput urgent areas like the emergency room, are usually around an hour for most tests. This of course, doesn’t factor in how long it takes the nurse to get the sample to us, or how many other patients the doctor has to deal with before getting back to you.
There’s a misconception that the lab is responsible for these delays, because medical staff like to use us as a scapegoat, if they mess up a sample, or they’re busy with higher priority patients, it’s much easier for them to just tell you the lab lost or delayed your sample, knowing you can’t just waltz in here and confront us.
It doesn’t. For a life and death emergency they can do it in a couple of hours.
It takes time for everything else because the equipment is very expensive and therefore needs to be in use often enough to justify the expense. It’s more cost effective to have samples backed up than have the equipment sat idle.
Most people can wait a day or two for results.
bro it takes time cause they gotta make sure they do all the tests right. gotta be super careful not to mess up. better safe than sorry right
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