Measures of Completeness and Accuracy of Clinical Information in Skin Biopsy Requisition Forms: An Analysis of 249 Cases.

OBJECTIVES

To define indices of completeness and accuracy of clinical information in the skin biopsy requisition form (RF) and correlate them with health care delivery outcomes and pathology service utilization.

METHODS

RFs in our pathology information system were reviewed and assessed for the presence of 10 clinical elements considered critical for dermatopathologic diagnosis. Accuracy was determined by reviewing corresponding clinical notes.

RESULTS

In total, 249 RFs were reviewed. In inflammatory dermatoses, provision of a clinical impression, provision of more than two elements, and achieving more than 75% accuracy were associated with improved outcomes and decreased utilization. For all nonlymphoproliferative cases, higher quality clinical information was associated with decreased turnaround time (P < .001). More clinical information was associated with increased utilization and turnaround time (P = .0235) for lymphoproliferative cases and higher resampling rates for melanocytic lesions (P = .0066).

CONCLUSIONS

In inflammatory dermatoses, providing high-quality clinical information on the RF promotes optimal histopathologic diagnostic performance and appropriate pathology service utilization.