Implementation of a 'lean' cytopathology service: towards routine same-day reporting

Lean and Six Sigma as continuous quality improvement frameworks in the clinical diagnostic laboratory

Processes to enhance customer-related services in healthcare organizations are complex and it can be difficult to achieve efficient patient-focused services. Laboratories make an integral part of the healthcare service industry where healthcare providers deal with critical patient results. Errors in these processes may cost a human life, create a negative impact on an organization's reputation, cause revenue loss, and open doors for expensive lawsuits. To overcome these complexities, healthcare organizations must implement an approach that helps healthcare service providers to reduce waste, variation, and work imbalance in the service processes. Lean and Six Sigma are used as continuous process improvement frameworks in laboratory medicine. Six Sigma uses an approach that involves problem-solving, continuous improvement and quantitative statistical process control. Six Sigma is a technique based on the DMAIC process (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) to improve quality performance. Application of DMAIC in a healthcare organization provides guidance on how to handle quality that is directed toward patient satisfaction in a healthcare service industry. The Lean process is a technique for process management in which waste reduction is the primary purpose; this is accomplished by implementing waste mitigation practices and methodologies for quality improvement. Overall, this article outlines the frameworks for continuous quality and process improvement in healthcare organizations, with a focus on the impacts of Lean and Six Sigma on the performance and quality service delivery system in clinical laboratories. It also examines the role of utilization management and challenges that impact the implementation of Lean and Six Sigma in clinical laboratories.

Implementation of modern tools in autopsy practice-the way towards contemporary postmortal diagnostics

Medical, legal, and socioeconomic issues have contributed to the decline of autopsy rates. Pathology-related factors, however, with changing clinical duties on the one hand and decreasing interest and lack of substantial technical developments in this field on the other, may have contributed to this condition as well. We present our experience of a restructuring project that culminated in the introduction of a modernized postmortal diagnostic (PMD) unit: Workflows of PMD procedures and space organization were restructured according to LEAN management principles method. Classical autopsy suites were transformed into postmortal operating rooms. A PMD pathologist staff was designated to perform postmortal operative diagnostics (i.e., using laparotomy and thoracotomy approaches) with the intention of gradually replacing classical autopsy procedures. Postmortal minimal invasive diagnostics (PMID) using laparoscopy and thoracoscopy were successfully implemented with the expertise of clinical colleagues. Reorganization of workflow reduced turn-around times for PMD reports from a median of 33 days to 15 days. Short-term analysis revealed that this combined effort leads to a slight increase in the number of adult postmortal examinations 1 year after the introduction of this project. A change of culture in postmortal diagnostics may contribute to a better reputation of postmortal examinations from the perspective of clinicians, the general public, and affected relatives of the deceased. It may also serve to demonstrate that the pathology community is keen not only to preserve but also to further develop this valuable tool for medical quality control and education.