[Histonet] Histology Labs work schedules

[Sharon.Davis-Devine]

I have an important question to pose to all of you Histonetters. We currently have 5 Histotechs who work from 4:00 am to 4:30 pm Monday thru Friday.  One comes in at 4 am to embed, another comes in at 5 am to help finish embedding and start cutting blocks. The others come in from around 7 am to 8 am. We average around 200-250 blocks per day with an average of 350-400 slides cut per day.  IHC and Special staining is averaging around 145-200 slides per day with that number increasing.  So the burden of the work rests on these 5 techs in the morning.  We have a tech from Cytology who performs all of the IHC staining using two Ventana Benchmark stainers.  The problem is our IHC volume keeps increasing so that two runs a day are not keeping up with the volume.  We are playing around with the idea of adding an additional shift so that we have personnel here later in the day to run the IHC and special stainers and to embed and cut small biopsies and breast specimens.  Below is a list of questions that I would like for you to answer to assist us in making these crucial decisions.

1.                   What are your staff schedules?  HT's, PA's and Lab assistants.
2.                   On average, how many blocks and slides do you cut per day?
3.                   If you have more than one shift, what hours do they work and what job functions do they perform?
4.                   Does any of your staff work on the weekend and if they do what is their job function?
5.                   What kind of QC/QA program do you utilize in your laboratory?

Thank you so much for you help.


Sharon Davis-Devine, CT (ASCP)
Cytology-Histology  Supervisor
Carle Foundation Hospital
Laboratory and Pathology Services
611 West Park Street
Urbana, Illinois 61801
217-383-3572
sharon.davis-devine <@t> carle.com