title: The development and testing of a laboratory information system-driven tool for pre-sign-out quality assurance of random surgical pathology reports.
abstract: We describe the development and testing of a novel pre-sign-out quality assurance tool for case diagnoses that allows for the random review of a percentage of cases by a second pathologist before case verification and release of the final report. The tool incorporates the ability to record and report levels of diagnostic disagreement, reviewers' comments, and steps taken to resolve any discrepancies identified. It is expandable to allow for the review of any percentage of cases in any number of subspecialty or general pathology "benches" and provides a prospective instrument for preventing some serious errors from occurring, thereby potentially affecting patient care in addition to identifying and documenting more general process issues. It can also be used to augment other more conventional methods of quality control such as frozen section/final diagnosis correlation, conference review, and case review before interdisciplinary clinicopathologic sessions. There has been no significant delay in case turnaround time since implementation. Further assessment of the tool's function after full departmental application is underway.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Scott R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Owens
authors.forename: Rajiv
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dhir
authors.forename: Samuel A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Yousem
authors.forename: Susan M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Piccoli
authors.forename: Luke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wiehagen
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lassige
authors.forename: Anil V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Parwani
mesh_terms: D002984:Clinical Laboratory Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D010338:Pathology, Clinical / Q000592:standards*; D010340:Pathology, Surgical / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000458:organization & administration