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. 2023 Oct 16;34(3):213-219.
eCollection 2023 Oct.

Disruption of laboratory activities during the COVID-19 pandemic: results of an EFLM Task Force Preparation of Labs for Emergencies (TF-PLE) survey

Giuseppe Lippi  1 , Janne Cadamuro  2 , Elisa Danese  1 , Emmanuel J Favaloro  3 , Julien Favresse  4 , Brandon M Henry  5 , Snezana Jovicic  6 , Tomris Ozben  7 , Mario Plebani  8 , Jecko Thachil  9
Affiliations

Disruption of laboratory activities during the COVID-19 pandemic: results of an EFLM Task Force Preparation of Labs for Emergencies (TF-PLE) survey

Giuseppe Lippi et al. EJIFCC. .

Abstract

Background: The EFLM Task Force Preparation of Labs for Emergencies (TF-PLE) created a survey that has been distributed to its members for gathering information on the key hazards experienced by European medical laboratories during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: The survey was distributed to over 12,000 potential contacts (laboratory workers) via an EFLM newsletter, with responses collected between May 8 and June 8, 2023.

Results: Two hundred replies were collected and examined from European laboratories. 69.7% and 78.1% of all responders said they were short on non-COVID and COVID reagents, respectively. Exactly half of respondents (50.0%) said that they could not complete all laboratory tests required for a specific period, but this figure climbed to 61.2% for COVID tests. Finally, 72.3% of respondents expressed exhaustion during the pandemic, and 61.2% reported increasing patient hostility.

Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on laboratory medicine in Europe. Cultural change, proactive planning, and even re-engineering in some parts of the laboratory industry may thus be necessary to prepare for future challenges.

Keywords: COVID-19; Laboratory Medicine; SARS-CoV-2; Survey.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
The EFLM Newsletter about the TF-PLE survey that had been delivered to over 12,000 potential contacts among European and non-European laboratory professionals.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
The percentages of the 200 EFLM European medical laboratories which responded to the EFLM survey stratified according to the volume of tests performed per year.
Figure 3:
Figure 3:
Responses to the question “Which types of troubles did you encounter (at least at some times) during the COVID-19 pandemic?” given by 200 European medical laboratories which responded to the EFLM survey.
Figure 4:
Figure 4:
Positive responses to the question “which types of troubles did you encounter (at least at some times) during the COVID-19 pandemic?” given by 200 European medical laboratories which responded to the EFLM survey, stratified according to their testing volume (test per year).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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