[Histonet] IHC turnaround time

[Morken, Timothy]

Dawn, I'd say 12-5 is a good TAT for any lab. Same day TAT is excellent. Maybe they don't want to stay late to ready the slides?

We do 250 - 300/day, 5-6,000/month but we have extended working hours. We cut recuts from 11pm thru to 3pm and start loading  the Bond and Ventana at 4am. Then they get loaded continuously until about 4pm. We'll do overnight if necessary.

This and linking our stainers to our LIS through barcodes greatly reduced TAT. Just the linkage saved us a couple working hours per day in data entry into the stainers - now it is all entered automatically by the system. When the stainer scans the slide it links to the order and fills in all the info. At least for the Bond. Ventana is not as clean. The order information is sent to the stainer, but  because they insist on using their own barcode so it takes double labeling for their system.  But we do 85% on the Bonds

Our TAT went from up to 36 hours down to about 5 hours average. We get some done  in 3 hours just due to the stain being ordered and us picking it up and cutting right away. The pathologists don't complain at all anymore. In fact they were kind of incredulous when they would order in the late morning and get it in the afternoon, or order in the late afternoon and it would be in their mailbox when they came in the next morning.

BTW, for the direct work on the stainer it takes only 2 FTE (two shifts). Counting the recuts people it is another 1.5 FTE, and counting the distribution person it is one more FTE. So about 4.5 total FTE for cutting, staining, and slide distribution.


Tim Morken
Pathology Site Manager, Parnassus
Supervisor, Electron Microscopy/Neuromuscular Special Studies
Department of Pathology
UC San Francisco Medical Center



Histonet] IHC turnaround time<https://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu&q=subject:%22%5C%5BHistonet%5C%5D+IHC+turnaround+time%22&o=newest>

Olszewski, Dawn<https://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu&q=from:%22Olszewski%2C+Dawn%22> Fri, 19 Jun 2015 08:11:44 -0700<https://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu&q=date:20150619>

Hi Histonetters,

                                                                  6-19-15



We are wondering what the average turnaround times for IHC are for other labs.

We use the Biocare Intellipath instrumentation. It holds up to 50 slides ( 10

slides per 5 racks) with continuous feed per open rack.  All IHC orders placed

by 12pm are usually out the same day by 5pm. We average 434 IHC slides per

month and have a staff of 3 FTE's.



A pathologist has voiced concerns over our IHC output.  We are trying to

determine "best practices" for IHC turnaround time as measured from time order

placed to time of slide delivery.



If you could respond with your IHC TAT including number of techs and average of

IHC slides monthly, we would appreciate any input you may be able to provide.



Thank you in advance,



Dawn Olszewski, HTL(ASCP)QIHC