Laboratory Personnel Qualifications for Testing and Competency – Part II
October 21, 2022The first part of this two-part series of articles discussed laboratory personnel qualifications regarding education and experience. In this second part, we will cover competency, which is the most frequently cited laboratory inspection deficiency across the nation. Why Competency? Laboratory testing personnel competency is assessed to ensure ...
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Lab Testing Personnel Qualifications and Competency in Two Parts
October 14, 2022A topic frequently overheard discussed at the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP) recent 2022 annual meeting in Chicago was the CMS proposal to allow nurses to perform high-complexity testing. The proposal by the arm of the federal government responsible for healthcare is one of many seeking to address the severe shortage of laboratory personnel across the nation. The unofficial majority opinion of convention attendees was that it...
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Creating A Competency Assessment Program For Pharmacy Staff
August 12, 2022Competency Assessment for Staff in a Pharmacy Getting optimal pharmaceutical care outcomes for patients is a multi-layered process. A significant factor that affects most of these processes is the competence of the staff handling them. This is why routine competency assessment for the pharmacy staff is recommended. For Pharmacies, four majo...
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How To Digitize and Automate Your Competency Assessment Program
July 18, 2022On June 21, 2022, StaffReady hosted a webinar on Automating CAP and CLIA Requirements in the Lab. Out of that webinar came several wide-ranging questions on the capability of StaffReady’s Competency module. For this month’s blog article, we’re taking a deeper dive into the StaffReady Competency module and uncovering some of its capabilities. Navigating Assessments In some healthcare vocations – namely the Laboratory – the specif...
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Pharmacy Competency Assessments: Improving Practice and Training
July 01, 2022Pharmacy Competency Assessments: Improving Practice and Training Competency assessments have become increasingly common over the years, including in the pharmacy environment. In health care, competencies began to evolve following a groundbreaking 2003 Institute of Medicine (IOM) publication addressing gaps in health system design. The IOM identified five core competencies at the time which would be the root ...
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Creating a Standard Way of Managing Your Work, Team, and Personal Goals
June 24, 2022Creating a Standard Way of Managing Your Work, Team, and Personal Goals Editor’s note: This week we are departing from our regular blog approach to bring you something a bit more personal. Most if not all professionals struggle at some point in time with keeping up with all the details and getting the truly important tasks completed. Audra Bradfield discusses Leader Standard Work, an approach that can work in any field. You may have heard about this a...
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Compounding Extemporaneous Pharmaceutical Preparations
June 13, 2022Can Pharmacy Management Systems Help in Pharmaceutical Compounding? Compounding extemporaneous pharmaceutical preparations is a process that is unavoidable in many pharmacies. Hospital pharmacies must ensure medication is available in the required dosage for convenient use. Sometimes this preparation extends to other medical consumables; sterile and non-sterile. Community pharmacies also share this burden and must often carry out extemporaneous preparations for efficient me...
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Documenting Compounding Processes
June 06, 2022Is Documentation Important to Your Pharmaceutical Compounding Process? Compounding sterile and non-sterile pharmaceutical products is very delicate. One small procedural error can invalidate several batches of products or, worse, lead to the release of defective products for patients to use. Unlike some other manufacturing processes, there is a need for pharmaceutical manufacturers to be more meticulous. Documentation plays a vital role in achieving this. The popula...
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How StaffReady Checklist Simplifies Repetitive Tasks
May 20, 2022LABORATORIES TODAY: Operating a clinical laboratory is no small feat. Every test result depends on a multitude of factors, from the smallest details to the overarching systems and mandates. Daily, ongoing operations (reagent storage temperature, operating temperature, humidity, vibration, lighting, expiration dates) take considerable time to manage in every lab. At the same time, tracking overarching requirements (Quality Assurance programs, Quality Cont...
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Keeping the IV Room Free of Contaminants: Part II
May 11, 2022Keeping the IV Room Free of Contaminants: Part II In this two-part series, we will explore strategies to keep the IV room free of contamination, with a focus on electronic checklists. In Part I, discussed training checklists for keeping the IV room clean. In Part II, we will discuss daily, weekly and monthly checklists for keeping the IV room pollutant-free...
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Keeping the IV Room Free of Contaminants: Part I
April 22, 2022Keeping the IV Room Free of Contaminants: Part I In this two-part series, we will explore strategies to keep the IV room free of contamination, with a focus on electronic checklists. In Part I, we will discuss training checklists for keeping the IV room clean. In Part II, we will discuss daily, weekly and monthly checklists for keeping the IV room ...
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Creating a Successful Onboarding Experience For New Hires
April 15, 2022Creating a Successful Onboarding Experience In my previous role as Operations Manager, one of the first things I began to tackle was creating a better onboarding experience for new hires. To be honest, there was not much in place, and I started from the ground up. Like grandma’s old recipes, nothing was in writing, and it was mostly “this is the way I do it.” I saw an opportunity for improvement and committed to making it better. With each new hire over the years, the onboardi...
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5 Tips for Surviving a CAP Inspection
April 08, 2022I recently went through a CAP inspection for our lab. In fact, it was my sixth time having gone through an inspection. And even after this much experience, my nerves were on edge awaiting the inspector’s arrival. Prior to an inspection, lists of to-do items run through my head as the date draws near. “Did I get all my direct observations signed?” “Did I document the 6-month ...
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Expanded Roles of Pharmacies in COVID-19 Tests and Vaccinations: Adapting Your Resources
March 25, 2022Expanded Roles of Pharmacies in COVID-19 Tests and Vaccinations: Adapting Your Resources The new realities of the COVID-19 pandemic have helped healthcare professionals around the world take on new roles. As a core part of the healthcare delivery system, pharmacies also play an important role in minimizing the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientific studies have highlighted some other of the emerging roles of pharmacies as increased participation in...
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Increasing COVID-19 Vaccine Safety
March 18, 2022Increasing COVID-19 Vaccine Safety As of March 2022, more than 557 million COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the United States. Among these are several high-profile reports of COVID-19 vaccination errors, including administration of an...
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The Great Resignation, Part II: How Innovative Staffing Solutions Can Facilitate Flexibility to Help Solve Health Worker Shortages
March 11, 2022Since the pandemic started, health systems have been overwhelmed and healthcare staff overworked, resulting in significant burnout among employees. This has motivated a huge percentage of the workforce to resign or pivot their vocational interests, a movement dubbed the “Great Resignation.” In healthcare, the sector to endure the most severe drop in employment is the nursing workforce. Compared to pre-pandemic stats, the pool of licensed practical or vocation nurses decreased 20...
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Post-Covid Recovery for Laboratories, Part 2: The Staff
March 04, 2022Post-Covid Recovery for Laboratories – The Staff (Part 2) The first part of this series discussed the future of the healthcare laboratory market and its possibilities. Market trends expect molecular testing, anatomic pathology, and flow cytometry disciplines to continue to experience significant growth. There will also be an increased demand for laboratory testing in response to the need to treat new and reoccurring pathogens. In part 2 of this series, we will discuss ...
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Post-Covid Recovery for Laboratories, Part 1: The Market
February 25, 2022Post-Covid Recovery for Laboratories – The Market (Part 1) Despite the seeming persistency of the pandemic, history has shown this crisis will pass. However, when it does, the demands placed on medical laboratories will not disappear. In fact, market studies expect laboratories will experience an ...
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The Great Resignation, Part I: The Impact on the Health Care Industry
February 11, 2022Part I: The Impact of the Great Resignation on the Health Care Industry The Great Resignation describes the trend of American workers leaving their jobs. Four million people – roughly 3% of the entire US workforce – have left their jobs over the past year.1 The coronavirus pandemic motived many people to retire and forced others to stay home with their children. But for the majority of people, they have left their jobs to seek out new roles with less risk, b...
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Challenges Associated with Anesthesia Tray Fill and Crash Cart Fill
February 04, 2022Crash carts and anesthesia trays are vital components of inpatient pharmacy practice in a health system setting. Clinicians rely on them to be functional and fully stocked in life-threatening situations. However, ensuring that carts and trays are filled accurately, promptly, and safely can be challenging. This is especially true given rampant short-staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Safety Issues Known safety issues linked to carts and trays include: ...
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7 Features to Look For in Pharmacy Management Software
January 28, 20227 Features to Look Out for in Pharmacy Management Software For pharmacists and pharmacy managers, Pharmacy Management Software (PMS) is one of the most important resources for the pharmacy. The Pharmacy Management Software is a system that helps store data and automates processes in the pharmacy. These processes can range from patient information to routine inspection to staff rotation, among others. Pharmacy Management So...
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The Need for Pharmacy Management Software
January 21, 2022Why You Need Pharmacy Management Software Nowadays, a pharmacy is fast becoming more than a place to fill your prescriptions. Beyond the typical role of dispensing, a pharmacy now offers several added services with respect to the dispensing of medication and patient counseling....
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Challenges Facing Effective Healthcare Personnel Scheduling in the Hospital Setting During the COVID-19 Pandemic
January 14, 2022Challenges Facing Effective Healthcare Personnel Scheduling in the Hospital Setting During the COVID-19 Pandemic COVID-19 has shaken the United States healthcare system to its core. Hospitals know this all too well. The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated many changes to how hospitals operate. Some of these changes are short-term day-to-day issues, and others will likely persist long after the COVID-19 pandemic abates. ...
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Managing and Maximizing the Workforce in Pharmacy
January 07, 2022Managing and Maximizing the Workforce in Pharmacy Getting the best results from the workforce in any organization requires meticulous strategy planning and implantation. To fully harness individual strengths to achieve overall success as a team, it is vital to pay close attention to the individual and general methods used in managing the workforce. These management approaches often cover many things, from shift schedules and rotati...
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The Management of POCT Competencies from a Nursing Perspective
December 17, 2021The Management of POCT Competencies from a Nursing Perspective Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) relates to an alternative to core laboratory testing. It is an option for conducting laboratory testing closer to the patients – such as an emergency room, IC unit, operating room, physician’s office, or an ambulatory care clinic. The popularity of POCT continues to increase, and the options for methods and devices continue to expand. Employing POCT has several advantages that aid...
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Resilience: A Critical Competency for Nurses
December 10, 2021Pandemic conditions have placed emphasis on the quality of resiliency in nursing. In reality, this quality has always been valuable. Let’s examine what resiliency is, how nurses develop it, and how it can be assessed. What is resiliency? Every healthcare provider faces stressful situations on a daily basis. The cumulative effect of difficult situations leads to a much...
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The Need for Competency Management Systems in Radiology
December 03, 2021The Need for Competency Management Systems in Radiology It is critical for medical staff, especially in robust imaging departments, to stay inspection ready. This is an ongoing task, and the best compliance strategies should be designed around competency assessment efforts. For radiology centers, where imaging processes require manual calibration of sophisticated equipment with potentially hazardous exposures, managing competency is a top priority. To help an organization conf...
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Supply Chain Woes – How Hospitals are Coping and Looking Ahead
November 19, 2021This is the second article in a series on Supply Chain issues in healthcare. To see all StaffReady blog posts, click here. Container ships are languishing on the West Coast while multi-faceted supply chain problems affect almost every US market. How are health systems being affected, and how are they tackling the issues? Hospitals are no ...
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The Impact of Supply Chain Disruptions in the Laboratory Industry
November 05, 2021This is the first article in a two-part series on Supply Chain issues in healthcare. To see all StaffReady blog posts, click here. In response to a global health crisis, clinical laboratories are feeling the crunch in more ways than one. An ever-increasing demand for COVID-19 testing along with products to support the management of COVID-19 patients has forced many laboratories to shift priorities. And supply chain ...
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Diversion Prevention Technology for Pharmacy Systems Management
October 27, 2021Preventing drug diversion, especially regarding controlled substances, is an important role for pharmacy management. This is especially true considering that up to 15% of healthcare professionals will misuse substances during their careers, a statistic that matches the general population. However, pharmacy is often in the reactive position of responding to diversion that has already taken place, sometimes weeks or months after the actual event. This complicates and impedes pharmacy’s abili...
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Not all Scheduling Solutions are the Same – a StaffReady Success Story
October 15, 2021The number one priority for the employees I manage is their schedule. We provide 24/7 operations, and without a clear schedule posted in advance, my team members would be unable to plan their lives or come to work prepared, much less focus on patient care. Creating, organizing, and publishing a pharmacy department schedule is a complex, ongoing management responsibility. My focus is producing a schedule that clearly designates who is doing each task for each day at e...
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Quality and Point of Care Testing – Part 2
September 24, 2021In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the importance of quality in the pre-analytical phase of Point of Care (POC) testing. In Part 2, we will cover the quality aspects impacting the analytical and post-analytical phases. Analytical Quality Traditional POCT operators are non-laboratory trained personnel lacking a firm grasp of laboratory principles and the importance of quality control (QC). One of the ways device manufacturers address the need to ensure the ...
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Quality and Point of Care Testing – Part 1
September 10, 2021It is reported that 70% of clinical decisions are based on test results more often generated in a permanent laboratory. As technology has become more mobile, the laboratory has been miniaturized into portable testing devices. The wide –array of POCT devices include glucometers, urine readers, blood gas analzyers, and pregnancy tests. These devices (and many others) makeup Point-of-Care-Testing (POCT) and have tra...
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Sterile Compounding: How To Minimize Microbial Infection Risk During COVID-19
September 03, 2021Considerations for Sterile Compounding During COVID-19 The SARS-CoV-19 pandemic has upended the healthcare field for more than a year and a half. Besides an impact on infection control practices and staffing considerations, the pandemic has...
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Impacts of Delayed Routine and Preventative Care
July 09, 2021Just as the healthcare community begins to regroup from prolonged pandemic conditions, it is faced with a new challenge – the “catch-up” period. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the routine healthcare flow dramatically as providers had to scale back operations and patients avoided care out of...
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Improving Employee Engagement in the Pharmacy
June 11, 2021Editor's note: we first published this post on 09/04/2020. It was one of our most-read columns, and we thought you might enjoy it again. Employee engagement is defined as the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals. It is what separate...
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Clinical Workforce Management Software
May 28, 2021Employee turnover or "churn" affects every hospital department. Turnover carries with it significant costs, and skilled management will work to minimize that cost. This week, we offer our whitepaper entitled "Reducing Turnover as a Key Outcome of Clinical Workforce Management Software." In this whitepaper we explore the costs - and the ma...
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Presenting Audit Documentation Electronically - A Survey of Pharmacies
May 14, 2021Providing documentation during a pharmacy audit is always a challenge. Perhaps you’ve seen carts of binders and files being rolled to wherever the audit team is located. The virtual surveys brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have added another layer of complexity. Manual (paper) records must somehow be presented to an inspector, either one at a time via webcam or by scanning to a file and allowing remote access. At a practical level, these records all need to be double handled – first w...
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StaffReady Partnership Transitions
April 23, 2021The StaffReady suite of products has enjoyed significant growth since its launch in 2002. What started as a single pharmacy schedule in 2003 has expanded to hundreds of clients in multiple hospital departments across the US and Canada. In 2006, StaffReady entered into a reseller ag...
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Presenting Inspection Documentation Electronically - A Survey of Laboratories
April 09, 2021Providing documentation during a laboratory inspection is always a challenge. We’ve all seen carts of binders and files being rolled to wherever the inspection team is located. The virtual surveys brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have added another layer of complexity. Manual (paper) records must somehow be presented to an inspector, either one at a time via webcam or by scanning to a file and allowing remote access. At a practical level, these records all need to be double handled ...
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5 Tips For Surviving A CAP Inspection - Updated
March 26, 2021StaffReady is re-releasing this blog article, originally published in 2018. It has great content, and some additional information and links have been added. We hope you find this useful! - Editor I recently went th...
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New Support Features at StaffReady
March 12, 2021Nearly two years ago, StaffReady implemented a ChatBot feature on our web page and within our application to add support features. We’re moving on to a set of new features in an effort to provide a better user experience and streamline operations. At StaffReady, we do take customer feedback ser...
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Preparing for a CAP Inspection - Part 2
February 19, 2021In Part I of this series, we talked about preparations a laboratory could make in getting ready for an initial or biennial CAP inspection. Part 2 will focus on preparing staff for a CAP inspection. Staff preparation Laboratory staff are integral to successful laboratory operations. The CAP recognizes this fact and tasks inspectors to ask staff questions to ensure they are aware of the policies and procedures forming the framework of laboratory oper...
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Preparing for a CAP Inspection - Part 1
February 05, 2021Medical laboratories are highly regulated operations requiring strict adherence to standards and regulations to be granted accreditation. As part of the accreditation process, a laboratory must be inspected. For laboratory staff, the regular inspection cycles produce some of the most stressful experiences they will likely have while working in a lab. Fortunately, whether it is an initial or biennial inspection, there are some standard tasks and duties a laboratory can do to prepare...
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New Feature Announcement - Schedule Observers
January 29, 2021StaffReady Scheduling has a variety of features to allow for painless, automated scheduling. Schedule Observers is yet another value-added feature in our Scheduling Module. Perfect for both Enterprise applications and department schedules as well. With Schedule Observers, the Schedule Admin can identify individuals that can view schedules but not edit them. These individuals might be fellow leads or admins that would not normally have access to a given schedule - perfect for sh...
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New Feature Announcement - Question Rotation
January 15, 2021StaffReady is pleased to announce the recent release of a New Feature: Question Rotation. With Question Rotation, Admins can create a question bank from which each employee will be randomly assigned a designated number of questions. Admins can mix the Rotational Question type with other questions that all employees must answer, allowing them to design exams to better meet your department's needs and goals. Case Exa...
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Excellence: A Journey, not a Destination
January 08, 2021This article follows the four-part series on preparedness for a Joint Commission Survey. All four articles in the series can be acces...
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Joint Commission Surveys, Part 4 - Have a Plan
December 18, 2020This article, “Have a Plan”, is the final installment in a four-part series on preparedness for a Joint Commission Survey. This article addresses being prepared for the details and activities that come with Survey Day. All four articles in the series can be accessed ...
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Joint Commission Surveys, Part 3 - Self-Survey
December 04, 2020This article, “Self-Survey”, is the third in a four-part series on preparedness for a Joint Commission Survey. This article addresses the process of performing a mock Survey on your own department or facility. Stay tu...
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Joint Commission Surveys, Part 2 - Past Performance
November 20, 2020This article, “Past Performance”, is the second in a four-part series on preparedness for a Joint Commission Survey. This article addresses a review of your past Joint Commission Surveys. Stay tuned ...
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Joint Commission Surveys, Part 1 - Get Informed
November 06, 2020This article, “Get Informed”, is the first in a four-part series on preparedness for a Joint Commission Survey. This article addresses the newcomer to Joint Commission Surveys. Future articles will dig deeper. Stay tuned to StaffReady’s ...
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How Scheduling Automation Improves Employee Morale
October 23, 2020In Times Like TheseIt’s close to the end of 2020, and everyone in healthcare is gearing up for another projected wave of COVID-19 outbreaks. The US healthcare system is in the ninth month of crisis management. As the weeks drag on, the normal stres...
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Making the Best Use of Laboratory Checklists - back by popular demand!
October 02, 2020Note: this post originally appeared in March 2020. It's received quite a bit of attention, so we've updated it and are posting it again. ~editor As we all know, preparing for an inspection should never be a last-minute activity....
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New Reports Dashboard - Feature Announcement
September 30, 2020Starting Wednesday evening, 09/30/2020, our Reports options will have a whole new look. As a part of our Discovery process, we've taken Customer feedback and presented our reports in a more intuitive way, and added in some improvements as well. The reports will also load faster - certain t...
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Conversations about Bias in Healthcare
September 18, 2020The problems of discrimination and oppression have recently risen to the surface of the American psyche as a result of the horrific acts of violence committed against Black and Brown people recorded and shown unfiltered to the public. The videos have caused protests to erupt across the nation. Regardless of where an individual resides on the political spectrum, the unrest is concerning. The workplace is not immune to events happening in the country. Despite the expectation for empl...
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Improving Employee Engagement in the Pharmacy
September 04, 2020Employee engagement is defined as the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals. It is what separates those that are content and those that go above and beyond to see the organization succeed. More and more organizations are shifting a large focus to employee ...
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The Discovery Process at StaffReady
August 22, 2020As a company, we’ve spent almost twenty years designing the core technology and features behind StaffReady. One of the secrets of our success has been regular input from our clients and other industry experts since the very beginning. Your success is our s...
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Feature Spotlight: Uncovering Competency Mysteries
July 29, 2020There are mysteries hidden in your department. Even the best of your staff members, they carry secrets. Secrets related to how they’re handling their assessments and what they’re telling you they’ve done. Those secrets are easy to keep hidden, until it’s time for an audit. Then, the moment of truth arrives: “Oh yeah, I was wondering about that assessment. I thought I took it last August. I never did get a score back.” ...
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Changes to a Staffing Model During a Pandemic
July 10, 2020As Operations Manager for a hospital Pharmacy Department, these past few months have been a whirlwind as we adapted to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Since mid-March, we went into high gear to swiftly adopt new, hospital-level protocols and make changes in our own department that reflected those guidelines. New safety guidelines, PPE, changing our workflows and staffing levels, all in the manner of a few weeks. Even with all this, we still tried to provide the best work-life balance possible...
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Lab Productivity During a Pandemic
June 11, 2020The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed significant operational challenges to the laboratory’s mission to deliver high-quality, accurate diagnostic test results in a timely manner. Within a few short months, significant changes have been made to testing procedures, procuring personal protective equipment (PPE), and balancing staffing loads. Laboratory leaders have had to adopt new ways of thinking and managing to navigate the changes. Regardless of the solutions to complex issues,...
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Prepare for the Next Pandemic at Your Hospital, Laboratory, or Pharmacy
May 30, 2020The SARS-COV-2 virus has captured the world’s attention in just a few short months. We watched the scientific community respond to a new disease, isolate the virus, suss out its genetic code, and determine its immunological characteristics. Within healthcare facilities the world over, both existing and new protocols went into hyperdrive. Laboratory assays were created and sold. Dozens of Clinical Trials were initiated. PPE protocols were updated. Testing Procedures and Compet...
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Document Accountability in a Crisis
May 16, 2020On a normal day, you’re primarily in your office but today, you’re on the floor covering for someone who is out sick. Out the corner of your eye, you notice one of your staff carrying out a procedure using an outdated method. Didn’t he get the message? We talked about this at the staff meeting two days ago! You drop what you’re doing, pull the employee aside, show him the current procedure, and instruct him to use it going forward. Later in your office, you have...
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5 Tips for Scheduling During a Crisis
April 30, 2020“All hands on deck!” A familiar shipmates’ cry, but one also being heard in healthcare managers’ offices around the country. Whether it’s COVID-19, a hurricane, a flood, a tornado, or an accident on a freeway, the staff in nursing, laboratories, pharmacies, radiology and other departments rise to the challenge when disaster strikes. For many of us, it’s why we got into healthcare in the first place. We want to help others and contribute to the common good....
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Making the Best Use of Laboratory Checklists
March 27, 2020As we all know, preparing for an inspection should never be a last-minute activity. Constant discipline and a steadfast dedication to quality are both required. Having the right tools to maintain that vigilance is essential. Today we will go over one obvious but oftentimes underutilized resource you all have at your disposal – checklists from your accrediting bodies. Regardless of the format you have them in – PDF, a text document, or on paper, you can make what I c...
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Working from Home – Not an Option
March 05, 2020Facts about COVID-19 By this time, I am sure that you have had your fill of COVID-19 related articles. The illness, while relatively mild, is new and comes with a higher mortality rate than the annual varieties of influenza we experience every year. It is also highly contagious, and is of course dangerous to certain at-risk population...
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What would Spock say about your lab?
December 06, 2019We all know Science Officer Spock, right? Cool. Calm. Logical. What do you suppose he would say about your lab? Are your test menu choices logical? Are your workflows lean and efficient? Are your records and documents pristine? Are you fully staffed? Did everyone score 100% on their Competency assessments? Is your staff ...
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Top 6 Reasons to use StaffReady Document Control
November 20, 2019A Document Control system is a necessity in the modern healthcare workplace. Policies, procedures, forms, worksheets, memoranda (and many others) all require a uniform method to write, review, approve and distribute, as well as to serve as a knowledge base for your staff. Sadly, many solutions on the market today trap the enterprise in a rigid structure that lacks the flexibility to meet common workplace challenges. Like sections in an orchestra, your Pharmacy, Radiology, Laborator...
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Feature Spotlight: Enforce Rotations
October 14, 2019You’re a lab manager or supervisor. You earned your degree, went through your internship, and got that memorable first job. Perhaps you worked through different jobs along the way. You know the Jaffe’ reaction, the ins and outs of the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone system, and could still do a manual differential if you had to. The problem is, college and training may have missed a few things: “Team Morale” was never mentioned in Chemistry...
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The Value of Strong Vendor Relationships
September 17, 2019Laboratories are relying increasingly more on automation and unique software solutions in order to deliver quality patient results within an expected turn-around time. As they also struggle to replace empty positions and maintain a cohesive team, few relationships are as important as those that exist between lab scientists and vendors. Developing strong working partnerships with vendors does require time and patience from both parties, but the value it offers is mutually beneficial...
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Retaining Laboratory Talent is Critical
August 26, 2019Whether you’ve been in the lab for one year or for thirty, you are probably all too familiar with working “short-staffed”. For years, the laboratory workforce has been in decline as laboratory education programs close and baby boomers retire. For those of us in urban areas, we have not really felt this impact quite as much as other parts of the country, where finding trained laboratory professionals to fill open positions grows increasingly difficult. For urban a...
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Clinical Workforce Management Software
July 29, 2019Decades ago, automation changed the face of laboratory testing forever. However, the methods to manage the people staffing the laboratory have changed little: Paper competency assessment forms. Paper schedules posted on the wall. Procedure manuals with signatures in ink on paper. 1950 or 2019? The problems that arise from these outdated, unreliable systems also remain largely unchanged:...
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Using Employee Priority Settings to Fine-Tune Your Schedule
June 04, 2019At StaffReady, we strive to create functional, easy to use and intuitive software. We are not after just a raw list of features – we want to build excited customers! To that end, we’ll be showcasing some current and new features in the months to come. Our newest Feature Spotlight is “Using Employee Priority Settings to Fine-Tune Your Schedule.” The Scenario: If your operation is anything like the ones I’ve managed in...
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Integrating Scheduling and Competency
May 06, 2019At StaffReady, we strive to create functional, easy to use and intuitive software. We are not after just a raw list of features – we want to build excited clients! To that end, we’ll be showcasing some current and new features in the months to come. In this second installment of our Feature Spotlights, we will be highlighting Integrating the Scheduling and Competency modules. Managing a workforce is a challenge, whether it be in the Laborator...
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Persevere Through PAMA
April 15, 2019Persevere Through PAMA Now more than ever, clinical laboratories need to be focused on implementing lean processes. Along with the challenge associated with finding qualified professionals, labs are now also tasked with surviving through the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA). PAMA dramatically changes the way in which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) determines its pay rates for specific lab tests. In the past, CMS pay rate...
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9 Signs Your Spreadsheet (and maybe your administrator) Has Reached the Breaking Point for Staff Scheduling
March 14, 2019If you are using a spreadsheet to manage staff schedules in the laboratory, pharmacy, nursing or other departments, it may be time to examine whether it has exceeded its ability to help you. A spreadsheet is a software solution that does a good job at organizing certain types of data and doing calculations but does not handle the complexity of many scheduling environments. A spreadsheet is definitely an upgrade from paper, no question. However, the staff administrator must still:...
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Feature Spotlight: Availability Override
February 28, 2019Feature Spotlight: Availability Override At StaffReady, we strive to create functional, easy to use and intuitive software. We are not after just a raw list of features – we want to build excited customers! To that end, we’ll be showcasing some current and new features in the months to come. Our first Feature Spotlight will be Availability Override in the StaffReady Scheduling module. The Scenario: Ideally, ...
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Six Common Roadblocks to Successful Competency Assessments
October 26, 2018Despite our best efforts in the laboratory, Competency Assessment remains one of the most cited deficiencies at regulatory inspections. Guidelines, education, and articles can help us to know what our competency assessments must entail, but actually being successful in implementing and maintaining a successful competency program still seems like a lofty goal for most clinical laboratories. ...
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The Five Most Common Inspection Deficiencies and How to Avoid Them
July 25, 2018Laboratories across the country are continuously introducing more sophisticated testing into their routine test menu. At the same time, our career field is struggling for resources and regulatory requirements are becoming increasingly rigorous. ...
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Life doesn't have to be so hard. Lean labs make life easier.
June 12, 2018It’s so easy to get used to a certain way of life or be immersed in a particular culture, to the point that we are almost blind to alternate ways of doing things. This is often the case in the lab, where many of us have been there for years and years, and this is “just the way that we do things”. ...
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Automating Manual Processes for 21st Century Lab Leaders
May 01, 2018I suspect you’ve been there – attending a department leadership meeting. You went in preoccupied with a variety of issues: problems with the new immunology assay, disappointed that the early Marketing estimates for the new assay seem to be more “myth” than “math,” wondering how you’re going to cover another 6-month FMLA leave request, and getting all of your documentation ready for your inspection window. A lot, to be sure – but you could handle it. ...
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Six tools every lab should start using today
April 18, 2018Do you ever stop to think about where we were in the lab just 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago? I don’t need to tell you that times sure have changed. Technology has not only improved the technical and scientific aspects of our labs, but also the day-to-day, run-of-the-mill administrative ...
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Automation vs The Human Touch
April 05, 2018Laboratories across the world are tasked with increasing productivity and efficiency while maintaining safety and quality. One of the ways this has been made possible is with the introduction of laboratory automation. Automation increases productivity, decreases turn-around-time, standardizes workflow, and delivers valuable data collection. Laboratory automation has also been proven to help labs set new safety goals and evaluate new acceptable standards. See ...
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5 tips for surviving a CAP inspection
April 03, 2018I recently went through a CAP inspection for our lab. In fact, it was my sixth time having gone through an inspection. And even after this much experience, my nerves were on edge awaiting the inspector’s arrival. Prior to an inspection, lists of to-do items run through my head as the dat...
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Managing the Winter Blues
February 01, 2018For much of the northern United States, the winter doldrums have arrived. The post-holiday months of February and March loom before us, dark, cold and wet in some fashion. You arrive to work in the dark, and you leave work in the dark. Fluorescent lab lights artificially illuminate your li...
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Reduce Your Competency Burden
December 27, 2017Competency. Assessment.Are your hairs standing on end?Are shivers running down your spine? Hopefully not! It's not that bad, right? But managing your competency assessment program is most likely not your favorite thing about working in the lab. It's time-consumin...
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Life in the Lab: Reality Vs Media Portrayal
November 08, 2017“What do you actually do in a laboratory?” Most Medical Laboratory Scientists agree that they are regularly challenged to explain our industry and dispel myths about the day in, day out work we do in our labs. Media portrayals further muddy the waters...
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He said. She said. Gender in the lab
October 03, 2017I recently saw a meme posted in one of the laboratory Facebook groups where a man wearing a lab coat was standing in the middle of the lab holding his ears, as his numerous female coworkers “clucked” all around him. Picture a rooster in the barnyard with hens all around him. Whether ...
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Minding the gap between generations
May 30, 2017One of the biggest challenges for me as a laboratory leader is learning how to manage the widening generation gap between employees. The majority of laboratories are currently staffed by technical personnel in either the baby boomer or the millennial generation. Both groups have irreplaceable value...
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CLIA, CAP, JCAHO: Six steps to being inspection ready … perpetually!
May 06, 2017AACC recently released their Top Deficiencies in the Nation. If you take a moment to peruse the list, you may easily spot some commonalities among the cited regulati...
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I’m a supervisor. Now what?
April 26, 2017From bench to leadership. Four years ago, I made the move from bench scientist to a technical supervisor. While I expected to be unfamiliar with certain aspects of the position, I found I was actually minimally prepared for a few of the key responsibilities of the positio...
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3 ideas to standardize your lab
March 03, 2017In a highly regulated environment like the clinical laboratory, it’s easy to assume that we’ve got things covered when it comes to standardization. The regulations, requirements, and standards that we follow sort of spell things out for us. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for standa...
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Marketing the laboratory career to millennials. 5 strategies to enhance your recruiting efforts
February 22, 2017As a medical laboratory scientist and supervisor of our lab’s hematology department, I often sit in on interviews for open positions and take an active role in the employee selection process. If your lab is anything like ours, recruiting to fill an open position is no easy feat. Unfortunately, t...
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Promoting Visibility: Unveiling the "mysterious" world of clinical laboratory science
January 27, 2017As clinical laboratorians, we know that our important work is performed “behind the scenes.” It is touted as such to prospective students, to fellow allied health professionals, and to our family and friends who don’t quite understand what we do. But this “mysterious” aspect of our work h...
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Nurses in the lab: One lab scientist's perspective
October 10, 2016Have you heard the news that the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS), the government agency that oversees the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), recently issued a ...
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Patient connection: Behind the scenes
September 22, 2016Medical Laboratory Scientists who work in labs to support patient testing may perform tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of tests every year. These tests give doctors specific information regarding a patient’s current state of health, are necessary to guide initial treatme...
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Competency Compliance 101
August 11, 2016As laboratory professionals, from the beginning of our careers, we learn that documentation is everything. If it’s not documented, it didn’t happen. We speak a language of acronyms: QC, QA, CLSI, CAP, JCAHO, and LI—the list could go on. We live and breathe by regulatory standards and guidelin...
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Competency tug of war: How one lab supervisor tackled this trick task
June 23, 2016Whether you are making minor changes to your existing competency assessment program or giving it a major overhaul, you can expect some resistance along the way. Each year, the requirements for satisfying competency assessment have become increasingly stringent. While the intent is to ensure the tra...
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