Improving the detection capability and efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 RNA specimens by the specimen turn-around process with multi-department cooperation

Chenggui Liu; Wei Shen; Huiqiong Xie; Ying Li; Rong Cui; Rongcheng Wu; Li Xiao; Jing Li; Yanjun Guo; Yi Liao; Chonghui Zhao; Yunfei Xu; Qin Wang

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1294341

Improving the detection capability and efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 RNA specimens by the specimen turn-around process with multi-department cooperation

Front Public Health. 2024 Jan 5:11:1294341. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1294341. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Chenggui Liu^#¹, Wei Shen^#¹, Huiqiong Xie², Ying Li³, Rong Cui⁴, Rongcheng Wu⁵, Li Xiao⁶, Jing Li⁷, Yanjun Guo⁸, Yi Liao¹, Chonghui Zhao¹, Yunfei Xu¹, Qin Wang⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Laboratory, Chengdu Women's and Children's Central Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
² Departments of Nursing, Chengdu Women's and Children's Central Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
³ Department of Specimen Sampling, Chengdu Women's and Children's Central Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
⁴ Department of Specimen Transportation, Chengdu Women's and Children's Central Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
⁵ Department of Information Technology, Chengdu Women's and Children's Central Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
⁶ Department of Medical Administration, Chengdu Women's and Children's Central Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
⁷ Department of Hospital Infection Control, Chengdu Women's and Children's Central Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
⁸ Departments of Medical Equipment, Chengdu Women's and Children's Central Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
⁹ Department of Clinical Laboratory, Sichuan Province Orthopedic Hospital, Chengdu, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Objective: Improving the detection capability and efficiency of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA specimens is very important for the prevention and control of the outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this study, we evaluated the detection capability and efficiency of two outbreaks of COVID-19 before and after the process re-engineering in April and July 2022.

Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study involved 359,845 SARS-CoV-2 RNA specimens 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after the two outbreaks of COVID-19 in April and July. The number, transportation time and detection time of specimens, and the number of reports of more than 24 h were analyzed by SPSS software.

Results: While 16.84% of people chose nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) specimens, 83.16% chose oropharyngeal swabs (OPS) specimens to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA. There were significant upward trends in the percentage of 10 sample pooling (P-10) from April before process re-engineering to July after process re-engineering (p < 0.001). Compared with April, the number of specimens in July increased significantly not only 2 weeks before but also 2 weeks after the outbreak of COVID-19, with an increase of 35.46 and 93.94%, respectively. After the process re-engineering, the number of reports more than 24 h in the 2 weeks before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 in July was significantly lower than that in April before process re-engineering (0% vs. 0.06% and 0 vs. 0.89%, both p < 0.001).

Conclusion: The present study shows that strengthening the cooperation of multi-departments in process re-engineering, especially using the P-10 strategy and whole process informatization can improve the detection capability and efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 RNA specimens.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 RNA; detection capability; detection efficiency; process re-engineering.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / diagnosis
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Humans
RNA, Viral
Retrospective Studies
SARS-CoV-2 / genetics

Substances

RNA, Viral

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the Sichuan Provincial Science and Technology Department Research Foundation of China (No. 2020YFS0494 and 2013FZ0080) and the Sichuan Medical Association Research Foundation of China (No. 2019TG05).