oCtoBeR 2010 - American Association for Clinical Chemistry
oCtoBeR 2010 - American Association for Clinical Chemistry
oCtoBeR 2010 - American Association for Clinical Chemistry
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ing is prone to error. In a Lean workspace<br />
with a 5S process, this type of task receives<br />
greater emphasis so as to eliminate any unnecessary<br />
materials and/or objects from<br />
the work flow. Second, I wanted a record<br />
of the number of aliquots per<strong>for</strong>med, and<br />
there was no way to quantify this metric<br />
until the job category was separated out<br />
from the other processing duties.<br />
How do you handle error reporting?<br />
An important characteristic of our error<br />
reporting system is that we separate external<br />
errors, such as incomplete client orders<br />
or client errors, from errors that are true<br />
processing errors. Both types of errors are<br />
recorded using a similar software tool, but<br />
the systems are separate. We do this because<br />
knowing the rates of pre-analytic<br />
errors or exceptions helps us accurately<br />
predict our overall processing times. Both<br />
error reporting systems rely on a software<br />
application that assigns an individual is-<br />
What Can Laboratory Directors Learn from Baseball?<br />
By JaMes s. HeRnanDez, MD, Ms<br />
Major league baseball pitchers are masters<br />
at controlling the location of their<br />
pitches, and sometimes they throw balls<br />
with the intent of intimidating batters. The<br />
slang term, “chin music,” refers to a pitch<br />
that comes perilously close to the batter’s<br />
head, often causing the batter to move away<br />
from home plate and even to fall down.<br />
When the baseball actually hits the batter, it<br />
is called a “bean ball.” Pitchers are often so<br />
accurate that they can literally throw at the<br />
batter’s chin, causing the batter to jerk back<br />
or even fall down be<strong>for</strong>e he gets hit. Sometimes<br />
the pitcher’s manager or coach even<br />
orders the pitcher to throw a bean ball. This<br />
can result in both the manager and pitcher<br />
being ejected from the game.<br />
Like it or not, chin music and bean balls<br />
are part of the game of baseball. They entertain<br />
the crowd and boost the pitcher’s<br />
ego, especially if the umpire goes easy and<br />
lets him off without a warning or ejection.<br />
Successful Lab Leaders<br />
So how does baseball’s chin music tie into<br />
lab leadership? You might ask yourself<br />
which type of batters—weak or strong—<br />
are the pitcher’s target <strong>for</strong> this menacing<br />
pitch.<br />
In my opinion, lab managers who are<br />
not at the receiving end of a few bean balls<br />
or a little chin music are like weak batters<br />
and probably are not really leading the lab.<br />
As management guru John Kotter stated,<br />
“Management is about coping with complexity…leadership,<br />
by contrast, is about<br />
coping with change” (1). True leaders take<br />
the laboratory to new heights and guide the<br />
lab team through the lowest lows. Getting<br />
knocked down a few times in the process<br />
or taking it on the chin <strong>for</strong> an unpopular<br />
decision is part of leading.<br />
sue number to each problem case. That<br />
issue number references a file containing<br />
the error report and a log of all in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
related to that case. We record the issue<br />
number from our issue tracker with<br />
the specimen identification number in the<br />
LIS. This way, the LIS can reference a more<br />
detailed report. This is particularly helpful<br />
when you need to determine the reason<br />
behind quality issues.<br />
How do you assure that in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
about problem cases is not lost at the<br />
shift change?<br />
The error-reporting software is an issuetracker<br />
system that allows us to transmit<br />
in<strong>for</strong>mation between shifts. It works as follows:<br />
problem cases are removed from the<br />
fast lane and handed, with preliminary in<strong>for</strong>mation,<br />
to the slow-lane lead tech. This<br />
tech then submits the problem to client services<br />
by opening a new issue report in the<br />
system. Specimens with unresolved issues<br />
laboratory leaders face many challenges. but few situations are<br />
as trying as receiving unjust criticism <strong>for</strong> making an unpopular<br />
decision, even when that decision meets the needs of patients<br />
and staff. as a baseball fan, i think laboratorians can learn some<br />
valuable lessons about leadership from the sport.<br />
Patient safety is a non-negotiable matter<br />
that demands strong leadership in the<br />
lab, especially today. The six Institute of<br />
Medicine aims <strong>for</strong> improving the medical<br />
system call <strong>for</strong> all aspects of healthcare to<br />
be safe, effective, patient-centered, timely,<br />
efficient, and equitable (2). Even the suspicion<br />
of a patient safety issue should cause<br />
lab leaders to jump out of their chairs and<br />
respond with urgency and concern.<br />
Un<strong>for</strong>tunately, some laboratorians still<br />
seem to be opposed to the concepts of<br />
patient safety. As lab leaders, we need to<br />
understand why. In my experience, some<br />
laboratorians simply don’t understand why<br />
they are being asked to change how they<br />
process blood samples. Maybe their leaders<br />
haven’t effectively communicated or shared<br />
the vision of how protecting patients’ safety<br />
is at the heart of lab operations.<br />
In other instances, laboratorians might<br />
not be properly equipped or trained to respond<br />
to the Institute of Medicine’s goals.<br />
Maybe there are conflicting goals in the<br />
organization or patient safety is not a high<br />
priority in the institution. Some may resist<br />
because they simply aren’t willing to follow<br />
the new direction. They may be com<strong>for</strong>table<br />
with the status quo, or there may be<br />
too much inertia or a lack of trust in the<br />
leaders. Lab leaders need to respond to each<br />
of these scenarios differently, just as batters<br />
respond in various ways to balls thrown by<br />
the pitcher.<br />
Charging the Mound<br />
Similar to the crowd at a major league<br />
baseball game, lab staff watch how the lab’s<br />
leaders respond to bean balls and chin music.<br />
While some batters lose control and<br />
“charge the mound” after being on the receiving<br />
end of an intimidating pitch, we, as<br />
at the end of the shift are moved physically<br />
to specific hold areas inside the lab. Client<br />
services continuously monitors the documented<br />
issues until they are resolved, and<br />
they only close an issue in the software after<br />
it is resolved. As long as the issue is open,<br />
client services will work on it, no matter the<br />
shift. Lead techs who are concerned about<br />
a case in the hold area can check the most<br />
recent status of each issue by looking up the<br />
specimen ID or issue number in the errorreporting<br />
software. At the shift change, the<br />
lead tech only needs to communicate nonspecimen<br />
specific issues. This communication<br />
is done via a short checklist designed<br />
in-house to ensure that nothing of importance<br />
is missed.<br />
Does the approach to specimen processing<br />
that you describe here apply mostly<br />
to large-volume labs, or could it be<br />
applied in any size lab?<br />
Lean as the umbrella approach to problem-<br />
lab leaders and professionals, want to avoid<br />
coming unglued and attacking when the<br />
pressure is on. If we lose control, the results<br />
in the laboratory, as in baseball, are often<br />
not pleasant and may live on to taint our<br />
career.<br />
On the other hand, it is natural to want<br />
to be liked and to respond to chin music<br />
by backing off— in essence, staying on the<br />
ground. True leaders cross the bridge from<br />
wanting to be liked to earning the respect<br />
of the laboratory staff (3). Patient safety issues<br />
require strong and swift action from<br />
the lab’s leadership, even if the measures are<br />
unpopular.<br />
Loving the Game<br />
In my opinion, William Howard “Willie”<br />
Mays, Jr. was one of the best baseball players<br />
ever. Famous <strong>for</strong> his ebullient love of<br />
the game, he was known as the “The Say<br />
Hey Kid.” Mays got a lot of chin music in<br />
his career, particularly in his early days as<br />
one of the first African-<strong>American</strong>s to play<br />
solving is applicable to any size lab. In addition,<br />
the specific principles discussed<br />
above—separating problem cases from<br />
the routine work flow, tracking problem<br />
cases without loss of in<strong>for</strong>mation, predicting<br />
workload and matching staffing to<br />
that workload, organizing staff into logical<br />
groupings, and isolating and standardizing<br />
error-prone work—will help any lab<br />
improve efficiency, decrease turnaround<br />
times, and reduce errors.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
Smoothing workflow and reducing errors<br />
in specimen processing. <strong>Clinical</strong> Laboratory<br />
News. 2009. 35(7) x.<br />
Engineers in the clinical laboratory. <strong>Clinical</strong><br />
Laboratory News. 2009: 35 (1) x.<br />
Erin Grimm, MD, is a resident in the<br />
Department of Laboratory Medicine and<br />
Anatomic Pathology at the University of<br />
Washington, Seattle.<br />
lab leaders might do well to think of themselves as batters facing a tough<br />
pitcher when it comes to patient safety.<br />
after the major leagues were integrated. He<br />
frequently would dust himself off after getting<br />
some intimidating chin music, smile,<br />
and hit the next pitch.<br />
How we respond as lab leaders to chin<br />
music is a matter of what happens in the<br />
five-and-a-half inches between our ears.<br />
We can lose control and charge the mound,<br />
or we can do what Mays did. The choice is<br />
ours.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
1. Kotter, John P. What Leaders Really Do.<br />
In: Harvard Business Review on Leadership.<br />
Boston: Harvard Business School<br />
Publishing, 1998: 37.<br />
2. Institute of Medicine, Crossing the Quality<br />
Chasm. Available at http://iom.edu/Reports/2001/Crossing-the-Quality-Chasm-A-<br />
New-Health-System-<strong>for</strong>-the-21st-Century.<br />
aspx, accessed July 21, <strong>2010</strong>.<br />
3. Hernandez JS. Crossing the leadership<br />
bridge. Physician Exec 2009 Sep–Oct; 35<br />
(5):92–4.<br />
CliniCal laboratory news <strong>oCtoBeR</strong> <strong>2010</strong> 13