Course Outline
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- Introduction
- People
- People - Building Culture
- Improving productivity is best accomplished with strict oversight of the individual workers by management.
- Automation and Equipment
- Automation and Equipment
- One example of a benefit of improved automation in the laboratory is:
- Materials Management and Environment
- Material Inventory Management
- Materials management may be enhanced by using which of the following?
- Laboratory Environment
- The laboratory environment does not include:
- Management
- Management
- Which of the following is not considered a challenging task for enhancing productivity in the diagnostic laboratory?
- Process Control
- Process Control
- In the laboratory, process control includes all of the following, except:
- Measuring Productivity
- Measuring Productivity Through Benchmarking
- RPRT went down and CPRT stayed the same during the previous month. There was a change noted in the payee fee schedule. This means productivity has not...
- Problem-Solving with the Cause and Effect Diagram (Fishbone Diagram)
- How to Construct a Fishbone Diagram
- Case Study Example Utilizing Fishbone Analysis to Solve a Productivity Issue in Blood Bank Department (fictional)
- Example of Construction of Fishbone analysis
- Problem Statement for Productivity Change in Blood Bank
- Categorization
- Contributing Factors
- Deeper causes
- Determining Possible Solutions to the Problem
- Possible Solutions to Productivity Down 20% in Blood Bank Department
- In the previous example Fishbone Diagram (with analysis), the step for determining possible solutions to the defined problem led the team to determine...
- Strategies for Improving Productivity
- Strategies for Improving Productivity
- To become effective and efficient one must rely on management to provide direction.
- Summary
- Summary
- In addition to a good laboratory workplace culture, environment, and workflow arrangement -- it is important to:
- References
Additional Information
Level of instruction: Intermediate
Intended Audience: Medical laboratory scientists, medical technologists, and technicians. This course is also appropriate for medical laboratory science students and pathology residents.
Course Description: The course is a good tool to introduce new managers to measures of productivity in the laboratory. It describes how culture, management, people, equipment, automation, process control, environment, and materials management affect productivity. The course provides ways to measure productivity as well as some strategies to measure and improve productivity.
Author Information: Dr. A. Wayne Bruce has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Medical Technology and a Doctorate degree in Higher Education Administration and Statistics from the University of Minnesota. He has served as Director of a CLS Program for 25 years and as laboratory Director and Technical Consultant for over 35 years. He most recently was Associate Dean at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. Dr. Bruce is the President of Bruce North Country Consulting Services LLC and consults with clinical laboratories on laboratory finance, start-up, management, and accreditation. He currently directs a clinical laboratory. He has numerous publications, including a book on quality assurance for the clinical Laboratory and a financial management manual for the Thompson Publishing Group.
Reviewer Information: Dr. Julie Ann West is certified by the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) as a Medical Laboratory Scientist (MLS) and as a Specialist in Microbiology (SM). In addition, Dr. West has earned a Ph.D. in Public Health - Infectious Disease Epidemiology - and is Certified in Public Health (CPH) by the National Board of Public Health Examiners. Dr. West is experienced as a Technical Specialist, Safety Officer, Educator, and Lead in the Veterans Administration Healthcare System, and has prior experience as an Administrative Laboratory Director.
Reviewer Information: Larry Brace, Ph.D., MT(ASCP)SH has over 40 years of experience as a medical laboratory scientist. He holds a B.S. degree in Medical Laboratory Sciences and an M.S. degree in Clinical Pathology from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. degree in Pharmacology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has been an Associate Director of the Medical Technology Program at Michigan State University, Professor of Medical Laboratory Sciences and Professor of Pathology at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He was also the Director of Core Laboratories at UIC until his retirement. Dr. Brace has published more than 40 articles in major refereed scientific journals and has nearly 100 presentations (abstracts and podium presentations) at major national and international scientific meetings.
