[Histonet] Re: Grossing Room Staffing

[Robert Richmond]

Rick Garnhart HT(ASCP), Memorial Health System Histology Supervisor,
Colorado Springs, CO asks:

>>I need help in convincing my Pathology group that it is old school to have a aid or tech in the gross room to hand them specimen and put lids on cassettes and close them. We have a PA that is employed by the pathology group that wants help in putting lids on and closing cassette. We use the Thermo-Cassette printer in the gross room and print cassettes from a bar-coded label on the container. No cassettes are preprinted and placed on the specimen container lids.<<

Since I do locum tenens pathology, I frequently gross in unfamiliar
surroundings. It always dismays me not to have an assistant when I
gross, since my risk of mixing up specimens is high (haven't mixed one
up yet). It saves a remarkable amount of time to have somebody hand me
specimens and take away bottles, close cassettes, write up additional
cassettes when needed, and write the embedder's record in the few labs
that have this amenity (which should be required by regulatory
agencies).

I think the argument for a "pathologist's assistant's assistant" is
even stronger. The pathologist's time is worth nothing, but the PA's
time is quite valuable.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN