A survey of point of care testing in Irish hospitals: room for improvement.

Background: "Guidelines for safe and effective management and use of point of care testing" have been recently launched in Ireland.

Aims: To survey point of care testing (POCT) services in the Republic of Ireland.

Methods: A questionnaire covering accreditation status, existence of POCT committees, quality management systems, and staff resources was distributed by the Irish External Quality Assessment Scheme (IEQAS).

Results: Of those that returned completed questionnaires, 56% had assigned specific POCT responsibilities to designated staff. Most support was for blood gases and glucose analysis. Compared with other published studies, Irish laboratories gave similar support for blood gases, less for glucose and much less for urinalysis.

Conclusions: This survey demonstrated poor IT support for POCT. The majority of the respondents (78%) were dissatisfied with the quality of the POCT service in their institution.