[Histonet] Productivity Tracking

[Jay Lundgren]

As I pointed out, management can incentivize this any way they want.  You
could give raises, or you could say a tech is not eligible for a raise
until they can cut at a certain rate. The idea is to bring the slower
cutters up to speed, not get rid of them.  Based on my experience, if you
isolate and identify the malingerers, they will most likely speed up of
their own accord.  Most people will stop their BS once they realize
everyone is on to them.  The majority of people like to belong to a group,
and don't like to be thought of as being bad at their job.

Only if they absolutely refuse to try to speed up would you start the
process of getting rid of them, and only in certain situations.  We're
talking the truly toxic employee.

At least this way, the slower cutters don't slow down your whole workflow,
and it attempts to ensure some fairness in the amount of cutting each tech
does.  Also, you don't have to burden the faster cutters with more
paperwork for productivity reporting, not to mention the hours it will take
for management to collate and interpret the data.  It just takes someone
counting the slides daily, which takes a couple of minutes tops.

But your comment is a good example.  Eventually, if everyone is not pulling
together, the faster techs will start feeling taken advantage of, and
change their own attitude towards work as well.

Why would you feel that you are "getting saddled" with critical work,
rather than feeling proud that management has recognized your talent and is
utilizing it efficiently to improve patient care?   Do you feel like its
more work to cut 60 slides of bxs, specials, and IHCs (say, 10 blocks) than
60 slides of routine surgicals (60 blocks)? Personally, I'd rather cut the
bxs.

On Sun, Jul 7, 2019 at 2:02 PM jasonhauser71 at gmail.com <
jasonhauser71 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Really? If I am the faster cutter getting saddled with the more critical
> work, I would expect better pay than the slower cutter relegated to routine
> work.
>  If one managesfrom the standpoint of individual productivity- one will
> never be satisfied. The slowest and least produ tive can be fired or laid
> off...that just means there is a new victim
>
>
> Jason Hauser
> Sr. Histology Tecnician, MLT
> The South Bend Clinic
> South Bend Indiana
>
> ------ Original message------
> *From: *Jay Lundgren
> *Date: *Sat, Jul 6, 2019 2:12 PM
> *To: *WILLIAM DESALVO;
> *Cc: *Pairan, Kelly;histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu;
> *Subject:*Re: [Histonet] Productivity Tracking
>
> By the way, the standard for graduation from AFIP was 30 blocks/hr.
>
> Don't count blocks, count *slides*.
>
> If you have people slacking, you really need to start action to get rid of
> them.  One rotten apple ruins the whole bunch.  Google the new research on
> toxic personalities in the workplace.
>
> But if you want to try to bring them up to speed, try this: (Assuming one
> processing run, but the principle still applies.)
>
> 1)Someone takes the day's worksheet, and counts the number of slides to be
> cut, including recuts, special stains, IHC's and everything.   So,
> according to your protocol, (numbers made up for example) 1 GI block=3
> slides, an IHC panel= 10 slides, a routine tonsil block=1 slide, a bone
> marrow block, with specials and unstained slides=20 slides
>
> 2)Divide the number of slides to be cut by the number of cutters.
>
> 3)Distribute the blocks equally based on number of *slides *to be cut per
> tech.  Now obviously, you're going to want to give your biopsies, recuts,
> specials and IHCs to your quickest cutters, and on down the line, in order
> of priority, to the slower cutters.  If you only have 2 cutters, one person
> is going to cut all the bxs and specials and a few routines, and the other
> person will cut the bulk of the routines.
>
> This daily routine achieves 3 things.
>
>  1) It keeps the slower cutters from slowing down your more critical
> workflow.
>  2) It removes any benefit from slacking, because it attempts to ensure
> that everyone is doing the same amount of work, at least as far as cutting
> goes.
> 3) Most importantly, it identifies and isolates anyone who is cutting
> slower, because they will still be sitting there cutting while everyone
> else is done.
>
> While this might seem cruel, most humans are very group oriented.  If the
> slower cutters are experienced cutter who are sandbagging, they will
> usually pick up their pace.
>
> If someone is inexperienced and trying to get faster, that's OK, and you
> can focus on trying to help them get faster.
>
> A very small minority of people might be happy to sit there and cut their
> routines as slowly as possible, and you have to decide whether or not to
> start the process of getting rid of people like that. At least dividing the
> cutting like this avoids them slowing down your workflow too much.
>
> You can carrot and stick this however you want.  I see you are a histology
> supervisor, so I'm assuming it's actually stick/stick. (j/k :))  Maybe not
> let anyone go to lunch until all the cutting is done?  Let the fastest
> cutters leave 30 min early on a Friday? Send a clear message that it's not
> OK just to slack, you want everyone working to their potential.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 5, 2019 at 12:59 PM WILLIAM DESALVO via Histonet <
> histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu <%0Dhistonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu>> wrote:
>
> > I suggest you use slides created for the microtomy minimum standard. Not
> > all blocks are created equal. A good target is 30 slides per hour, for
> > mixed specimens. If all specialty, then adjust from the 30.
> >
> > William DeSalvo
> > ________________________________
> > From: Pairan, Kelly via Histonet
> > Sent: Friday, July 5, 2019 8:41:28 AM
> > To: histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu <+histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
> > Subject: [Histonet] Productivity Tracking
> >
> > Good Morning Histoland,
> > How are you tracking your histotechs productivity when it comes to
> > cutting?  We recently have implemented a 25 block per hour goal for all of
> > our histotechs and are receiving some push back.  I made 25 block per hour
> > the goal based on the following article that has been circulating for many
> > years (
> > https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41942535_Productivity_standards_for_histology_laboratories).
> > While I do not want to compromise quality, we do have turnaround times to
> > meet and I have experienced techs who are cutting less than 20 blocks per
> > hour.  I understand that some tissues and protocols take longer so this is
> > an average not something that has to be hit every shift.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Kelly
> >
> > Kelly Pairan,  HT (ASCP)CM, QIHC (ASCP)
> > Histology Supervisor-Anatomic Pathology
> > Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
> > Email:  kelly.pairan at nationwidechildrens.org <+kelly.pairan at nationwidechildrens.org>
> > ph: 614-722-5414
> > fx: 614-722-3033
> >
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