Improving bone marrow biopsy quality through peer discussion and data comparisons: A single institution experience

Bone marrow biopsy (BMB) is crucial for the diagnosis, staging, and monitoring of a variety of hematologic diseases. Obtaining an adequate BMB can be challenging given the need to balance patient comfort with acquisition of high quality specimens. We had observed variable BMB quality at our institution with poor quality specimens sometimes affecting diagnosis. We thus undertook this quality improvement (QI) project to improve the quality of diagnostic BMB specimens.

We used an A3 QI process to identify factors possibly influencing BMB quality. We collected baseline data on 211 BMB, with short and long-term follow-up data on a further 382 cases. We used clinical conferences to discuss data, perform peer comparisons and identify strategies to create a sustainable improvement in BMB quality.

Baseline data showed that BMB length was influenced most by the individual performer, with some influence of needle gauge. Other factors such as sedation, BMB indication were noncontributory. BMB lengths improved following performer education and individual performer data comparisons (15.2 mm post vs 12.8 mm baseline, P < .0001) and with use of an 8- rather than 11-gauge needle (18.3 mm 8-gauge vs 13.3 mm 11-gauge P < .0001), and were sustained over the long term.

Education on BMB standards, sharing of performer data, and changing needle gauge are relatively straightforward methods to improve BMB quality, leading to easier pathology diagnosis.