The recent Physician Satisfaction survey showed low marks for timeliness of pathology results. The pathologists have responded with a number of changes designed to correct this perceived deficiency:

· Pathology reports (with more than 99 lines of text) were found not to be interfacing to Carecast and Pasweb. This interface issue was fixed by Cerner the first of December 2009, but older cases that did not interface, will remain missing in Carecast and Pasweb. The reports are available in Cerner Millennium.

· To facilitate getting a pathologist on duty we have added a wireless "in house" phone (#740- 6640) so that a pathologist can be readily contacted anytime between 8 AM and 5 PM. After these hours, a pathologist is on call 24/7, and can always be reached in a timely fashion.

· Clinically important inpatient cases from Friday are read out on Saturday (all tissue specimens require overnight processing). The selection process for these cases has been fine tuned to include all pulmonary cytologies, avoiding the weekend delay in these sometimes critically ill patients. Please note that if any case on Friday is marked "urgent" by the clinician, these will be read out as well.

· Cases are now signed out throughout the day in Cerner Lab Computer system, rather than batching at the end of the shift, to improve the EMR accessibility for the clinicians. Also, on Saturdays reports are finishing by noon, whenever possible.

· In addition, any surgical pathology or cytology case with an unexpected result requiring immediate medical attention is called to the appropriate physician (for example, a bronch wash with an unexpected pnuemocystis).

· Rather than holding a case until additional diagnostic studies are available (e.g., special stains, immunohistochemical studies, flow cytometry results, etc.), more preliminary reports will be issued. This will result in an increase in the number of addenda, but some results and case status will be available on these challenging cases.

· Focused QA on bronchial wash and GI biopsies have improved the turn-around time for these specimens. A report for pathology report turn-around time has been developed by IS and will be used to evaluate other areas of focus and monitor improvements.

· Dr. Mair has attended the hospitalists' medical staff meeting to personally share improvements, share contact information and communicate the group's dedication to timely results.

The pathologists always welcome any additional suggestions that the medical staff has to improve their services.

SGH Medical Staff Family Bowling Night
Friday
January 22, 2010
6 pm
Parkway Bowl
$10 per person
No-host dinner at the Souplantation to follow for those families who are famished after a long evening of bowling!

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