The signing of laboratory reports.

Laboratory reports should be signed to indicate to the clinician that someone in the laboratory accepts a responsibility for the content of the report. Failure to sign is likely to produce a loss ofconfidence in the laboratory. In any case, laboratory reports should be subjected to some form of check before issue and the signature should be the evidence that such a check has been carried out. As indicated below, checking ideally requires medical as well as technical knowledge, and reports should therefore be signed by a pathologist whenever possible. When this is not possible, reports should be signed by graduate or by senior technical staff who have been trained to do so and who have been provided with a list of abnormal results which require urgent action as described in paragraph 7. When signing out reports the pathologist should satisfy himself that the pathology service is being properly used by the clinician and efficiently provided by the laboratory. He should check that the request has been made correctly and an appropriate sample properly submitted; that the laboratory staff have carried out the requested tests correctly and without undue delay; that suitable comments on the report are made where appropriate, and that urgent action is taken where indicated. It is important to keep the clinical staff aware of their responsibility to fill in request forms fully and accurately, as this determines to a large extent the quality of the service which the pathologist can provide. It is clearly impossible for the pathologist to check every aspect of every report as this will be much too time-consuming. These recommendations represent a target to be aimed at and not a minimum standard to be achieved. The pathologist should,