Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
J Am Soc Cytopathol. 2023 Jan-Feb;12(1):3-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jasc.2022.10.002. Epub 2022 Oct 7.
Quality management is integral to the practice of cytopathology, especially given the heavily manual workflows and expanding ancillary testing requirements inherent to the cytopathology laboratory. Monitoring quality data like turnaround time, specimen unsatisfactory rates, and diagnostic category utilization rates allows for better understanding of performance with opportunities for targeted improvement if there are variations from that which is expected. However, there are costs to quality monitoring including the time and resources needed, and, in already taxed systems, quality management risks being viewed as just another box to check. While there are mandated quality metrics that must be collected by cytology laboratories, thoughtful selection of key performance indicators can be of tremendous benefit in helping to better understand complex laboratory processes and directing improvement endeavors where needed. The following short communication is a discussion on quality management in the cytopathology laboratory from 3 Cytopathology Quality Management Directors. The discussion focuses on monitoring the atypical reporting category with an emphasis on how trending and visualizing quality metrics can provide laboratories with key data.
质量管理是细胞病理学实践不可或缺的一部分，特别是考虑到细胞病理学实验室固有的繁重的手工工作流程和不断扩大的辅助检测需求。监测周转时间、标本不满意率和诊断类别使用率等质量数据，可以更好地了解性能，如果与预期有差异，则可以有针对性地进行改进。然而，质量监测也有成本，包括所需的时间和资源，而且在已经紧张的系统中，质量管理有被视为只是另一个需要检查的框的风险。虽然细胞学实验室必须收集规定的质量指标，但明智地选择关键绩效指标对于帮助更好地了解复杂的实验室流程并在需要时指导改进工作非常有帮助。以下简短的交流是三位细胞病理学质量管理主任关于细胞病理学实验室质量管理的讨论。讨论集中在监测非典型报告类别，重点是趋势分析和可视化质量指标如何为实验室提供关键数据。
