Turnaround Time for Image-Guided Breast Core Biopsies: A College of American Pathologists Q-Probes Study

Timely breast core biopsy results help expedite appropriate treatment for patients. Many institutions track turnaround times from biopsy to report; however, there are no established benchmarks to evaluate performance and identify potential improvement opportunities.

To determine benchmark turnaround times for breast core biopsy reports and identify key drivers impacting turnaround time.

Participants enrolled in the College of American Pathologists Q-Probes study entitled Turnaround Time for Image-Guided Breast Needle Biopsy Specimens provided intervals for processing steps through report completion and details regarding potential influencing variables.

Nineteen participants submitted data for 876 cases. The median turnaround time from accession to report completion was 31.0 hours, with a median time of 19.2 hours from accessioning to slide delivery to pathologists. The median time from biopsy to accessioning (3.4 hours) and slide delivery to report completion (7.5 hours) was notably shorter. Cases with malignant diagnoses were associated with longer median turnaround times than those with benign/atypical/borderline diagnoses (44.1 hours versus 29.4 hours, respectively; P = .04). Cases requiring additional testing or consultation were associated with longer median turnaround times than straightforward cases (45.3 hours versus 27.4 hours, respectively; P < .001). Fixation time variability was noted between laboratories (median, 11.0 hours; 10th and 90th percentile times: 7.1 and 31.3 hours, respectively). Variability was seen in the total processing times among laboratories (mean, 9.1 hours; range, 4.5-12.5 hours).

Participating laboratories provided timely breast core biopsy results. Benchmark data presented may be useful for laboratories to assess performance and develop strategies for improvement.