Clinical Microscopy: Autoverification of Macroscopic Urinalysis

This article describes a software design application used to automatically verify macroscopic urinalysis. Two different laboratory information system vendor software utilities are used. Instrument-specific automated verification software is used to verify normal and negative findings and a rule-based system is used to autoverify abnormal macroscopic data when user-designed criteria have been satisfied. The two software plans support an autoverification performance rate of better than 92% for all macroscopic urinalysis performed daily in a large teaching hospital laboratory. Benefits of this design include enhanced workflow, decreased turnaround time, improved patient care, reduced laboratory overhead, and consistent reporting of results.