re: Turnaround Time

Scott Warner — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:58:43 GMT

Ryan,

Good points. Any system to measure TAT should try to isolate variables. What amazes me is how perceptions persist despite hard data. "The lab is slow" is said often enough until it becomes truth, when the variation is often outside the laboratory as you suggest.

re: Turnaround Time

Ryan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:06:52 GMT

In discussion of TAT, irregardless of how whoever measures it by whatever parameters.. have other factors been taken into account as to what can affect it?

Big one - Staffing and times of day measured. Obviously peak analytical times (morning run, off site drop offs, lunch/dinnertime and such..) can be taken into account as far as to number of specimens per instrument or number of verifiable results [problems] per analytical technologist.

Second - a wild card .. unnecessary tests. Yeah.. Just how many of those tests that come from the floors or ED that we draw, receive and analyze each day are clinically necessary? Does every ED patient really need the full rainbow of tubes for tests and UA and the like? or can they get away with less? How many of the tests from the floors are duplicates or overlaps or have orders with no stop times? Obviously if they are not needed or are unnecessary, they waste tech time and get in the way of other samples of a higher priority

As you said before in one of your previous blogs, Scott, computers were supposed to make data processing easier; when, in fact, they only seem to generate more work in the long run. Hopefully as newer systems come out they can become more sophisticated in detecting errors like the above and eliminate or block them before they make it to the label.

Thirdly,.. - Specimen errors that completely kill TAT and are a hinderance to us, the Docs and the patients. Those samples that come up contaminated, mislabeled, unlabeled, improperly collected or just not at all. Time is wasted preanalytically collecting and processing before any error is detected and once it is detected the corrective action process is activated. All taking time away from our normal procedures.