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Improving laboratory results turnaround time

K S Rudat1, J Henry, J Mosley

  • 1Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA.

Best Practices and Benchmarking in Healthcare : a Practical Journal for Clinical and Management Application
|November 1, 1996
PubMed
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Improving laboratory turnaround time is crucial for timely patient care. A multidisciplinary team successfully reduced specimen collection to result availability, enhancing critical decision-making.

Area of Science:

  • Clinical Laboratory Science
  • Healthcare Management
  • Performance Improvement

Background:

  • Physicians require prompt laboratory test results for time-critical patient care decisions.
  • The Methodist Hospital aimed to reduce turnaround time (TAT) for laboratory tests.
  • Specific goals included STAT results in <60 minutes and morning tests by 7-8 AM.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To implement and evaluate a performance improvement initiative to reduce laboratory test turnaround time.
  • To enhance the availability of test results for critical medical decision-making.

Main Methods:

  • Established a multidisciplinary performance improvement team.
  • Utilized the laboratory information system to measure specimen collection, reception, and verification times.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Identified and analyzed exceptions to pinpoint process improvement opportunities.

    • Main Results:

    • Morning specimen TAT improved from 60% to over 90% meeting goals.
    • Average TAT for morning specimens decreased from 186 to 95 minutes.
    • Average TAT for STAT specimens reduced from 69 to 45 minutes, with a significant decline in volume.

    Conclusions:

    • Laboratory test turnaround time is influenced by multiple healthcare providers.
    • Multidisciplinary collaboration is effective in improving the prompt availability of laboratory results.
    • Improved TAT supports timely, critical medical decisions.