ASCLS: Patient Safety & The Laboratory

Interdisciplinary Teams Reduce Errors and Improve Outcomes

Brooke Whitaker, DCLS, MLS(ASCP)cm and Courtney Shrader, MSHS, MLS(ASCP)cm, CPHQ

March 5, 2019

ASCLS: Patient Safety & The Laboratory, Featured, Home Page

Improving patient care and reducing diagnostic errors has been a hot topic since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released To Err is Human1 and Crossing the Quality Chasm2 in 2000 and 2001 respectively. Then in...

Evidence-Based Practices in Laboratory Test Development: The Need for Clinical Utility Evidence

Brandy Gunsolus

February 12, 2019

ASCLS: Patient Safety & The Laboratory, Featured, Home Page

By Brandy D. Gunsolus, DCLS, MLS(ASCP)CM, ASCLS Patient Safety Committee Within the healthcare professional competencies outlined by the 2003 report “Health Professions Education – A Bridge to Quality”, effe...

Healthcare Competencies Necessary to Deliver Quality Care – INTRODUCTION

Stacy Walz, PhD, MS, MT(ASCP)

January 4, 2019

ASCLS: Patient Safety & The Laboratory, Featured, Home Page, Quality Care

Some years back, members of our committee wrote articles for Lab Testing Matters that revolved around the six aims of quality healthcare and the five competencies all healthcare professionals should possess to ...

Educating Others: A Necessary Component of Quality Patient Care

Brandy Gunsolus

June 15, 2018

ASCLS: Patient Safety & The Laboratory, Home Page, Quality Care

“All health professionals should be educated to deliver patient-centered care as members of an interdisciplinary team, emphasizing evidence-based practice, quality improvement approaches, and informatics.” – In...

Thinking Outside the Box for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety

Jennifer Dawson, MHA, DLM(ASCP)CMSLS

May 16, 2018

ASCLS: Patient Safety & The Laboratory, Home Page, Quality Care

Laboratories are constantly seeking to improve their services for the benefit of their patients, but are usually under significant budgetary constraints. Sometimes all that is required to improve patient safety...

Answering Questions Prevents Errors – Role of Medical Laboratory Professionals

Catherine Otto, Ph.D., MBA, MLS(ASCP)CM and Karen Williams, MT (ASCP)

January 16, 2018

ASCLS: Patient Safety & The Laboratory, Featured, Home Page

What is an error in laboratory testing ? Webster defines Error as “an act or condition of ignorant or imprudent deviation from a code of behavior”.1 A diagnostic error is defined as “the failure to (a) establ...

Improving Error Reporting in Healthcare

Brandy Gunsolus

July 11, 2017

ASCLS: Patient Safety & The Laboratory, Featured, Home Page

Brandy Gunsolus has witnessed diagnostic errors as a patient as well as a professional. A decade ago, she started experiencing headaches, a rash – and repeated miscarriages. She went to different specialists...

Reformation of the Payment and Care Delivery Environment to Improve the Diagnostic Process

Lezlee Koch, MT(ASCP)

June 19, 2017

ASCLS: Patient Safety & The Laboratory, Featured, Home Page

Setting the stage: 1 in 10 diagnoses are incorrect.1 Diagnostic error accounts for 40,000-80,000 US deaths annually – somewhere between breast cancer and diabetes.1 Chances are we will all experience...

ASCLS: Enhancing Education in the Diagnostic Process

Posted by Site Administrator

December 8, 2016

ASCLS: Patient Safety & The Laboratory, Quality Care

It’s no secret that arriving at a definitive diagnosis in medicine is a complex process involving many “moving parts”. There is no “cookie cutter” or “one-size-fits-all” approach that can be applied, and very ...

ASCLS: Emphasizing Teamwork to Improve Diagnostic Accuracy

Pamela Meadows, Ed.D., MT(ASCP)

November 10, 2016

ASCLS: Patient Safety & The Laboratory, Home Page, Quality Care

Diagnostic errors represent a prominent issue for patient safety. In an effort to improve accuracy in patient diagnosis, recent recommendations from the Institute of Medicine suggest that increased emphasis sh...

It narrows down the doctors’ guess to the specific cause of illness

Martin koomeKenya

Lab Testing Matters

2019-10-07T21:34:05-04:00

Martin koomeKenya

It narrows down the doctors’ guess to the specific cause of illness

http://www.labtestingmatters.org/testimonials/doctors-guess/

When only four years old, I developed a life-threatening infection that was treated effectively only after being tested against multiple...

KathyNorth Carolina

Lab Testing Matters

2019-10-07T21:42:32-04:00

KathyNorth Carolina

When only four years old, I developed a life-threatening infection that was treated effectively only after being tested against multiple antibiotics in a clinical lab. I now help women reach their goal of medical school while teaching in an undergrad college. My colleague, another biology professor, survived meningitis as an infant in part due to the testing performed in a clinical lab. THANKS!

http://www.labtestingmatters.org/testimonials/life-threatening-infection/

It helps clinicians in patient management and prognosis.

SigeyNAIROBI

Lab Testing Matters

2019-10-07T21:49:06-04:00

SigeyNAIROBI

It helps clinicians in patient management and prognosis.

http://www.labtestingmatters.org/testimonials/it-helps-clinicians-in-patient-management-and-prognosis/

Every tube / specimen is a patient with a suspected illness in need of a diagnosis and appropriate course of...

G. Alexander BurnellJamaica, W.I.

Lab Testing Matters

2019-10-07T21:36:13-04:00

G. Alexander BurnellJamaica, W.I.

Every tube / specimen is a patient with a suspected illness in need of a diagnosis and appropriate course of treatment. Without our adept analytical and interpretive skills, the clinical physician would be at a loss in providing the appropriate care and course of treatment. It is even more critical as in my case where you’re one of only two skilled personnel in respect to certain diagnostic procedures (Flow Cytometry for the immunophenotyping of leukemia’s).

http://www.labtestingmatters.org/testimonials/adept-analytical/

It is vital to finding a diagnosis.

Ginette HuartVancouver, BC, Canada

Lab Testing Matters

2019-10-07T21:42:51-04:00

Ginette HuartVancouver, BC, Canada

It is vital to finding a diagnosis.

http://www.labtestingmatters.org/testimonials/it-is-vital-to-finding-a-diagnosis/

Lab Testing Matters