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Can You Read Expiration Dates?
March 25, 2013 6:02 AM by Scott Warner

A common task we are expected to perform is checking expiration dates on reagents, controls, and other dated materials. Boxes are crowded with different languages, vials are smaller, and eyesight fades with age. I remember vividly the moment when I couldn’t Read More...

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Noise Can Be Good
January 14, 2013 6:14 AM by Scott Warner

Recently, we installed a new analyzer. We shuffled things around, moving a freezer closer to our chemistry workstation. It makes up for its small size by groaning and rattling in a constant racket. According to a sound meter app on my phone, the ambient Read More...

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Our Noise Problem
September 2, 2011 6:27 AM by Scott Warner

If you go to “Hospital Compare,” a site maintained by the US Department of Health and Human Services summarizing the HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) scores, you can find out how quiet the hospitals in your area Read More...

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Tall Man Lettering
August 29, 2011 6:25 AM by Scott Warner

Many hospitals are using “tall man” lettering, which the Institute for Safe Medication Practices describes as “uppercase letters that are used within a drug name to highlight its primary dissimilarities with look-alike drug names.” (Example: HumaLOG and Read More...

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Take Back Your Bench Space
May 23, 2011 6:07 AM by Scott Warner

These days there’s a lot of talk about Lean, process design, efficiency, and reducing waste. Everyone wants to be paperless, electronic, barcoded, and ergonomic. They want to fix the system, repair the process, fishbone the root cause, and value-map the Read More...

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Multitasking
May 4, 2011 6:24 AM by Scott Warner

Many years ago when I worked evenings alone, I multitasked. I didn’t know it at the time; I just thought I was busy. It was common to juggle three or four analyzers at once, while slides dried and stained, the telephone rang, and I ran to the floor to Read More...

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Safer Transfusions
July 30, 2010 6:10 AM by Scott Warner

It is only by chance that identification errors don’t cause more transfusion-related deaths. One source claims a 1 in 20,000 chance a patient will receive a unit intended for someone else; blood group compatibility (e.g. group A can receive A or O) reduces Read More...

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Test Tube Thumb
December 23, 2009 6:12 AM by Scott Warner

I don't recall hearing much about repetitive motion injury before personal computers. Most of us probably know someone who has suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful condition caused by compressing the median nerve in the wrist, often linked Read More...

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Misfiling
August 28, 2009 6:06 AM by Scott Warner

If your lab uses a card file to track patient blood bank history, some cards are misfiled. Depending on where in the file they are placed, they may be good as gone. A blood banker won't be able to compare blood types or know that the patient has a positive Read More...

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The Speed of Information
May 12, 2008 2:02 PM by Scott Warner

My old boss used to say, "Any delay is too long." He was talking about programming iterate functions on a computer, but it's true for many things. We all hate to wait. But what are we waiting for? In a healthcare system, the speed of information is crucial Read More...

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