Dec 14, 2010 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Sharing Lessons in How Medical Labs Can Achieve “Best Practices” When Implementing Lean
One major trend in laboratory medicine still gathering momentum is the use of Lean and similar process improvement methods by clinical laboratories and pathology groups cross the nation. However, once a medical laboratory has enjoyed substantial gains from initial Lean projects, it can be challenging to sustain the Lean mindset with staff and further build upon those gains.
“Sustaining Lean thinking in your laboratory turns out to be rather simple, if you will follow several proven steps,” stated Patrick Maul, MBA, MT (ASCP). Maul is a Principal Consultant at BD Diagnostics and one of the nation’s earliest practitioners of Lean and Six Sigma in medical laboratories.
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Nov 5, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
Goal is for medical laboratories to enhance patient’s phlebotomy experience
DATELINE: San Antonio, Texas—Here in the Alamo City this week, many of the nation’s most innovative clinical laboratories, pathology groups, and in vitro diagnostics manufacturers came together to share their successes in the use of Lean, Six Sigma, and similar process improvement techniques.
The occasion was the Fourth Annual Lab Quality Confab and Performance Improvement Institute. This high-energy event was notable for several reasons. First, despite a lackluster economy, attendance was up more than 20% over last year. When asked about their participation, many attendees said that their parent hospital or health system sent them to the Lab Quality Confab specifically to bring back ideas for quality improvement projects that would advance clinical care while taking costs out of laboratory operations.
More Medical Laboratories Now Use Lean and Six Sigma Methods
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Oct 18, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Dark Daily gets tour of clinical lab and anatomic pathology activities
DATELINE: Omaha, Nebraska—This city may be in America’s heartland and best-known for corn-fed beef and billionaire-investor Warren Buffet, but its premier academic center clinical pathology laboratory is breaking new ground in several important ways.
Last Thursday, your Dark Daily editor was hosted for a site visit by the Department of Pathology and Microbiology at the University of Nebraska-Omaha (UNO). From adoption of digital pathology solutions to assertive use of Lean and Six Sigma techniques across the span of clinical laboratory and histology laboratory operations, advanced use of latest-generation medical laboratory testing technology was on display.
Using Lean and Value Process Maps in the Clinical Laboratory
Across the United States, every academic center Department of Pathology has activities and goals which distinguish it in specific ways when compared to other pathology departments. During this site visit, Dark Daily recognized three distinct laboratory management activities taking place in the clinical pathology laboratory at the 525-bed University of Nebraska Medical Center laboratory.
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Oct 14, 2010 | Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
North America’s three ISO 15189 accreditation bodies will be at Lab Quality Confab, along with most of the nation’s ISO-15189 accredited clinical pathology laboratories
In the United States and Canada, acceptance and use of ISO 15189:2007 Medical Laboratories has been limited to a handful of clinical pathology laboratories—except in the Canadian province of Ontario, where, starting almost eight years ago, ISO 15189 became the basis of the province’s mandatory clinical laboratory accreditation program.
But now more pathologists and clinical laboratory managers south of the U.S.–Canadian border are asking a fundamental question: “Is ISO 15189 accreditation an effective way to move my laboratory organization to higher levels of analytical quality while continuously reducing or eliminating errors that affect patient safety and clinical outcomes? More senior medical lab leaders are answering this question with a “yes.”
Clinical Laboratories Turning to ISO 15189
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Oct 5, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
Lab Quality Confab showcases the next paradigm shift for clinical laboratory QA/QC
Can Lean, Six Sigma, and process improvement techniques measurably improve the quality of analytical test results produced by clinical pathology laboratories? A handful of innovative pathologists and laboratory scientists say the answer is “yes”!
The outcomes from their pioneering efforts to deliberately attack and improve the quality of the analytical test results in their medical laboratories provide early evidence that Lean, Six Sigma, and similar performance improvement methods can play a role in reducing patient risk while significantly increasing the analytical integrity of the lab tests produced by their organizations.
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