Stepwise Success

Rules and Algorithms

Scott Warner — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:26:00 GMT

Just the other day a question of how to alert physicians of laboratory reflex rules came up. After all, everyone's rules are slightly different. Examples: if the dipstick is positive for blood or leukocyte esterase, perform a microscopic examination of...(read more)

Weasel Words

Scott Warner — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:26:00 GMT

Don Watson says in his introduction to Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words, Contemporary Cliches, Cant, & Management Jargon that weasel words are bringing about the death of language. "The real disease," he writes, "is in the system: in the new models...(read more)

Plan, Don't Panic

Scott Warner — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:27:00 GMT

The other week I watched a show on the Discovery channel in disbelief. Called Pig Bomb , it described hoards of feral pigs roaming the Southeast. Locals may have cross-bred the American boar with its ill-tempered cousin, the Eurasian wild boar, for hunting...(read more)

Abort Retry Ignore

Scott Warner — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:07:00 GMT

MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) debuted 28 years ago, quickly finding its way into labs on PCs in offices or attached to instruments. Programs such as BASIC promised much. We just knew , deep down, that computers meant less paper, effortless...(read more)

Back to BASIC

Scott Warner — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:17:00 GMT

I once read an article about a BASIC program used to temperature-correct arterial blood gas results. This was in the day when a program could be "keyed in" from a magazine. BASIC, which stands for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, was...(read more)

Teachable Moments

Scott Warner — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:25:00 GMT

Much was made of the President's "beer summit" last July, a meeting between a black professor and the white policeman who arrested him, something the Wall Street Journal labeled a "teachable moment." Aside from wondering what kind of beer goes best with...(read more)

Write Thyself

Scott Warner — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:55:00 GMT

It wouldn't surprise me if most laboratories have more written procedures than all other departments of the hospital combined -- shelves of them in worn, bursting binders. Printed or scanned, that's a lot of writing. And I'll bet the procedures are all...(read more)

Valuable Work

Scott Warner — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:16:00 GMT

When a round robin of "What's New" got to me at a recent department head meeting I said, "We're working on a new C. diff algorithm that screens for toxin-producing antigen and not just the toxin." Amid blank stares one manager laughed, " English please!"...(read more)

Competency

Scott Warner — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:04:00 GMT

According to CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) Sec. 493.1413(b)(8) , the technical consultant is responsible for "evaluating the competency of testing personnel." There are a number of ways to do this: direct observation, review of records,...(read more)

More Bullies

Scott Warner — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:54:00 GMT

I've written about bullies in contexts of relational aggression and most recently in terms of what it means to you. Let's consider several examples. The Coworker Bully – this individual goes to breaks and lunches before you, volunteers early for the sweet...(read more)

Bullies

Scott Warner — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:30:00 GMT

When I was a kid, every grade seemed to have a bully, often a large boy with thick fists who didn't do well in school. Small for my age, I saw many of them up close. I was told to stand up to bullies -- essentially cowards -- or suck it up. (I got larger...(read more)

The Box

Scott Warner — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:28:00 GMT

Along with "Aha!" moments – those insights that punctuate hard work – you've probably heard the idea to "think outside the box." It means to think from an unconventional or different perspective, assumed to be essential in creativity. It's a cliché these...(read more)

Take Home the Aha!

Scott Warner — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:21:00 GMT

One of the catch-phrases at seminars is The take home message is… Giving your audience a pithy "take home" message is good public speaking. It can be a memorable way to summarize an idea, merge ideas with action, or put a complex idea in terms everyone...(read more)

Calculations

Scott Warner — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:17:00 GMT

Most of us aren't mathematicians. Well, I'm not. I've known people who are just better at "seeing" math than myself. I've always struggled to add a column of figures in my head, forget solving Fermat's Last Theorem . Which has been solved already. Just...(read more)

Package Inserts

Scott Warner — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:14:00 GMT

In writing a procedure, I strive to make it the reference on the bench. Yet no matter how good a written procedure is, the package insert is always invaluable. There are two reasons for this. One, the package insert is the main reference for any procedure...(read more)