[Histonet] A survey of IHC lab staffing

[Sebree Linda A]

Good morning,
 
I am sending out one of those tedious surveys for people to answer if
they feel so compelled and have the interest/time.  Ours is an automated
lab with Ventana instruments, 2 XTs and 1 BMK but I encourage anyone who
wishes, to answer.
 
We are currently moving from a 2 permanent FTE IHC lab to a 1 permanent
FTE plus 1 FTE from a pool of 6 rotating surgical pathology techs.  As
you may have guessed, I am the 1 permanent FTE and I'm having a
difficult time envisioning how this rotation of techs is going to work.
 
These are my questions off the top of my head for now:
 

	
*	What is your monthly/yearly IHC workload?
*	How many techs rotate through IHC? 
*	Are there any permanent techs in IHC that don't rotate? 
*	Do all the techs, permanent or rotating, perform all the duties
of the IHC lab? 
*	What is your schedule of rotation?  Daily? Weekly? Monthly?
Other? 
*	What are the hours of your IHC lab?  The same as for the
histology lab? 
*	How many people are working in the IHC lab at any given time?
If it varies, how many hours are one, two, more people staffing the IHC
lab during the day? 
*	Do you have more than one shift working in IHC? 
*	Do you feel that all the people working in IHC have about the
same level of expertise?  If not, how is that dealt with? 
*	Who keeps track of things like antibody, detection, ancillary
reagent and supply inventories? 
*	Does this same person do the ordering or do all techs order? 
*	Who does monthly/quarterly cleaning and decontamination of your
instruments? 
*	Who is responsible for maintenance of temperatures, pH meter(s),
freezer defrosting, making up of bulk solutions i.e. reaction buffer,
EZ-Prep, etc. 
*	Do all people, some, or one person deal with QC of new lots of
antibodies, detection, etc? 
*	Who is responsible for trouble shooting instrument/staining
failures or problems? 
*	Who is responsible for finding and maintaining control tissue
inventory? 
*	Who is responsible for workload tallies/recording? 
*	Who is responsible for bringing on new antibodies? 
*	Who is the main contact person with Ventana or other
instrument/antibody vendor? 
*	Who does send outs to reference labs for antibodies you don't
carry? 
*	Are your requests mostly by panels of antibodies or not? 
*	Are certain antibodies/panels always requested on certain tissue
types/diagnoses? 
*	Are some/all/none of your IHC requests cut at the time of the
H&E sectioning? 
*	What is your TAT policy for IHC requests, i.e. deadline for same
day TAT, from in when to out when? 
*	If you are a VMS automated lab, how many and which VMS
instruments do you have? 
*	Do you use all predilute, all concentrate, or some of each kind
of antibody?

 
Thank you for your time and input.
 

Linda A. Sebree 
University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics 
IHC/ISH Laboratory 
DB1-223 VAH 
600 Highland Ave. 
Madison, WI 53792 
(608)265-6596