[Histonet] Productivity Reports

[Rick Tiefenauer]

 Allison,

One KEY to success I have found is to make sure your boss knows what he or
she wants, and get an agreement on what you need to report before you
start.  It can be very frustrating to invest resources in reporting what
isn't value added.

My problem has always been, that determining ACTUAL productivity reaches
outside of the lab if it is to be used to determine something like the labs
overall fiscal contribution to the enterprise.


If it is simply to measure "turn around time" for patient cases, that
can become a complicated set of time measurements from  point to
point within the lab, or it can be as simple as IN and OUT, total elapsed
time.



What works for you should be driven by what is to be accomplished with the
productivity report.

There are 4 questions I would ask immediately

1. What will the data be used for? (want it to accomplish)

2.  What investment is willing to be made in capturing and maintaining
data? (cost)

3.  Is this a “one-time” measurement?

(if this is the case, maybe an informed and educated calculation can be
made using existing data.  Work flow, billed hours, and patient tracking
should point to productivity, however this will have a higher error factor
than a measurement controlled within the lab.  Payroll, patient billing,
 or IT should be able to provide this data.)

 4.  Is this a paradigm shift to capture data on a continuous basis to
perform trend analysis to improve the flow of work in an attempt to
incorporate six-sigma/lean principles in the lab?

(if so, a six-sigma black belt would be a good consultant)
Or, again depending on the detail of existing data mentioned earlier, you
might be able to set up an ad-hoc report that is issued on a time period
that fits your schedule.  An error factor can be established and reported
with the data each time.  MS Excel makes great charts and graphs.  This
would be an easy way to report specific data applicable to your lab only.

I am new to the Histotech field but I have over 20 years in Quality
Assurance, I can tell you from experience that sometimes there is more
effort put into keeping statistics than they appear to be worth.  But, what
the boss wants the boss gets.

One of my past supervisors used to always say, "KEEP IT SIMPLE", and make
sure your metrics are *S.M.A.R.T.*

*S*pecific         *M*easurable       *A*ttainable
*R*ealistic
*T*imely



Best of Luck,

Rick T.