[Histonet] Histotechnician productivity

[John.Sheppard <@t> Health-Partners.org]

Hello Everyone,
            I have been assigned a "mission" by our medical director.  He
wants me to find out  what would be a reasonable number of blocks per day
for a histotech.  I have tried searching the archieves for this information
because I know it seems to be discussed quite often.  However most of the
old threads I found seemed to end up with histology professionals
discussing  that they would not  work in a "factory like" atmosphere where
they are slaves to productivity and turn around times.  Which to be honest
I agree with, histology should be a quality oriented  product.
      I have also looked at the ASCP and NSH websites where this
information is not readily accessible.  I will probably e-mail them to see
if they have any research or insight on this topic.
      The numbers that I am most familiar with, is 50 to 60 blocks per day
per histotech, when one is including embedding, cutting, manual H&E and Pap
staining(gyn & non-gyn), manual coverslipping, manual special stains, and
frozen sections.  I am just not sure how accurate those numbers are for
staffing a histology lab.
      This information is needed because we will be consolidating two
separate small community hospital histology labs onto one campus.
Apparently this will be used to justify the current staff of both
locations. Unfortunately, I believe this information will ultimately be
used to eliminate a position or two.
Thank you for your time
John Sheppard HT(ASCP)

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