Quality improvement in the cutaneous micrographic surgery laboratory.
A nationwide advocacy for improving health-care quality--including the dimensions of efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction--is rapidly growing. This initiative is evolving in an environment of total quality management (TQM) and continuous quality improvement (CQI). Quality assessment and improvement (QI) is a quality management program through which laboratories ensure the quality of their health-care services by continually monitoring, evaluating, and resolving opportunities for improvement. Using a systematic, FOCUS-PDCA approach, the Mohs histology laboratory implemented improvement of the quality management of frozen-section slide production and turnaround time (TAT). The Mohs laboratory achieved improved technical process performance, faster TAT time, more efficacious patient care support, and increased customer satisfaction. Using a comprehensive quality assessment and improvement process can overwhelm quality management assets if it is not approached in a systematic, prioritized manner. However, when judiciously used, the process can become a key instrument for ensuring and improving high-quality laboratory services in an efficient manner.
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City.
L J
LJ
Miller
G B
GB
Clark
D003625:Data Collection; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005568:Forms and Records Control; D005629:Frozen Sections; D006801:Humans; D007755:Laboratories, Hospital / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015580:Mohs Surgery / Q000592:standards*; D010934:Planning Techniques; D013996:Time and Motion Studies; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States