[Histonet] a question on ethics

[Gary Gill]

Current CLIA has replaced quality assurance with quality assessment as the
preferred term.

Gary Gill

-----Original Message-----
From: Marsha R Price [mailto:mprice26 <@t> juno.com] 
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 8:28 AM
To: pathrm35 <@t> adelphia.net
Cc: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: Re: [Histonet] a question on ethics


Ron,
You need to have an Quality Assurance Plan in place. That is an CAP
checklist question. I have a manual with logs etc. that you can have a copy
of. It can be customized for your lab. You can turn this lab around with a
well defined QA Program. QA is not an option it is a must/requirement if you
are a CLIA or CAP certified  lab.

Let me know if you would like a copy of the manual. It was done on Word. So
I can send to you electronically and you can make changes to it.

Marsha Price

On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 04:27:14 -0500 "Ron Martin" <pathrm35 <@t> adelphia.net>
writes:
> Fellow techs,
> I am in a difficult situation and need some serious advice. I
> recently (4 months ago) accepted a technical supervisor position in 
> a dermatology lab. I went from a bench tech at my old job to this 
> position. I also walked away from a raise at my old position so I 
> could step into a supervision position. I took the new position 
> because I was told by my manager that she would teach me some 
> supervision, management and financial skills that I currently do not 
> have as well as the growth potential of the company.This position is 
> not what I was told it would be. Part of my "duties" include 
> emptying the trash, clean the bathroom  (not happening) and taking 
> her personal and professional calls. The question on ethics is the 
> high volume of mistakes made by our technician, our offices and also 
> by my manager herself.
> I caught a mistake made by our tech a few weeks ago.She put the 
> wrong tissue on the wrong slides as she inverted the two cases. I 
> caught her mistake before it went out. One time she assigned the 
> same number to two different cases. She then sent the correct case 
> out for a consult (which wasn't needed) and put the wrong patient 
> name on the slide. Every other day there is something different.My 
> manager will not terminate her as she knows I am seeking employment 
> elsewhere and she cannot afford to lose a tech.
> One day my manager gave three cases the same accession number.She 
> caught her mistake on one of the cases but I still ended up with two 
> cases with the same number. When I first started there my manager 
> had a case in which there " was no tissue in the container". She 
> said that she notified the office about the situation however up to 
> six weeks later the office was still calling looking for results.At 
> that point she wrote up an incident report and dated it six weeks 
> prior to coincide with the surgery date.
> Our offices are not any better. One case came in with the wrong 
> patient information. It took about 7 weeks for the office to realize 
> that they sent the wrong patient information with the biopsy as the 
> names were close in spelling.  The offices continually send mistakes 
> with incorrect spelling of patients names and incorrect anatomical 
> locations.
>  I have tired to document everything but there are too many mistakes 
> and I don't have enough time or energy to keep up with them.My 
> manager wants us to do our own "internal quality control". My 
> interpretation of this is that she doesn't want our physician and 
> risk manager to know of these mistakes. Are these becoming common 
> problems or is it just my situation?
> I want to emphasize that I hope I am not being unethical myself for 
> revealing this information but I really need some advice and 
> support.I have very high standards and they are not being met in 
> this current situation. I am currently seeking a new position but I 
> need employment and cannot resign until another position becomes 
> available. I would like to stay in Florida and if anyone knows of 
> any positions please inform me as I am at my wits end. Thanks in 
> advance.
> 
> Ron
> _______________________________________________
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> Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
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> 
> 

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