ILM: Solving Problems & Making Decisions
Solving Problems and Making Decisions:
Cervical Screening Turnaround Times
Background
The aim of the cervical screening programme is to reduce the incidence of, and morbidity and mortality from, invasive cervical cancer. This is achieved by screening eligible women between the ages of 25 and 65 years.
In my role as an acting Senior Biomedical Scientist in the cytology department, I screen and report negative and inadequate cervical samples in line with XXX protocols as well as facilitating the flow of abnormal cervical samples through to consultant pathologists and ensuring appropriate recall management is given to patients. I am also involved with the supervision of staff and the production and management of in-house standard operating procedures.
Description of Problem
Although always monitored by XXX, the timeframe from taking a cervical sample to when it was reported has never been given a strict turnaround time target, unlike the screening programme in England, which since 2010 has had a 14-day turnaround time target. However, this is to change as XXX want women screened in XXX to have an equitable service to that of the women in England and with the introduction of new testing alongside the current cervical cytology test, laboratory turnaround times need to be under 3 weeks.
In May 2013, the majority of our work was turned-around in 3.5 weeks with only 0.9% of our workload being reported within the proposed 3 week timeframe. Being aware that XXX were likely to implement changes within the next 12 months, we wanted to be proactive and improve our performance before XXX enforce improvement methods upon us or worse the service was moved from XXX.
Therefore, the problem was identified as: How can we reduce our turnaround times to under 3 weeks (from date received in laboratory to date authorised)?
Analysis of the Problem
We were aware as a service that our turnaround times had increased over the last couple of years due to the loss of
Cervical Screening Turnaround Times
Background
The aim of the cervical screening programme is to reduce the incidence of, and morbidity and mortality from, invasive cervical cancer. This is achieved by screening eligible women between the ages of 25 and 65 years.
In my role as an acting Senior Biomedical Scientist in the cytology department, I screen and report negative and inadequate cervical samples in line with XXX protocols as well as facilitating the flow of abnormal cervical samples through to consultant pathologists and ensuring appropriate recall management is given to patients. I am also involved with the supervision of staff and the production and management of in-house standard operating procedures.
Description of Problem
Although always monitored by XXX, the timeframe from taking a cervical sample to when it was reported has never been given a strict turnaround time target, unlike the screening programme in England, which since 2010 has had a 14-day turnaround time target. However, this is to change as XXX want women screened in XXX to have an equitable service to that of the women in England and with the introduction of new testing alongside the current cervical cytology test, laboratory turnaround times need to be under 3 weeks.
In May 2013, the majority of our work was turned-around in 3.5 weeks with only 0.9% of our workload being reported within the proposed 3 week timeframe. Being aware that XXX were likely to implement changes within the next 12 months, we wanted to be proactive and improve our performance before XXX enforce improvement methods upon us or worse the service was moved from XXX.
Therefore, the problem was identified as: How can we reduce our turnaround times to under 3 weeks (from date received in laboratory to date authorised)?
Analysis of the Problem
We were aware as a service that our turnaround times had increased over the last couple of years due to the loss of