Table 7.

Australasian survey responses to ‘what do you do when it is difficult to find an appropriate person to accept a critical result?’

Action
The responsibility for delivering the result is passed on to a senior person/pathologist	83%
We continue trying across following shifts/days until the result is delivered	46%
We document occurrences where delivery of a critical result has been abandoned	39%
If the patient is at home, we attempt to contact the patient directly	23%
For certain critical results, if the patient is at home and is not contactable, we arrange for the police or ambulance service to call in on the patient	15%
We abandon our attempts to deliver the result after a predefined period of time	0%
Other, please specify (this includes: we involve our local emergency department - 9.6%)	25%