1. ORGANIZATION AND INSTITUTION FLOW PATTERNS OF WORK

2. General Considerations: Organizing and instituting flow patterns of clinical laboratory work involve implementing the basic responsibilities of management-planning, organizing, coordinating, directing, and controlling. These functions are interrelated and overlapping. These Management Functions can be defined as follows: 1-planning is deciding what to be done and determining the best way to do it. It’s Essentials:  understanding the assignment  Developing A plan. The plan should answer the questions: what is to be done, where is to be done, when is to be done, who will do it, how it will be done, and why it is being done.

3. 2- Organizing is arranging human and material recourses to carry out a plan in the most efficient manner possible. 3- Coordinating is the process of communicating with others inside and outside the supervisors area of control. 4- Directing is the process of implementing the planned activities of the organization and using the recourses in the actual operation. 5- Controlling is the process of comparing operations with some measurable criteria to determine if these activities are going according to the plan.

4. Clinical Laboratory Work Flow Major steps of workflow:  Collection and Delivery of specimens.  Specimen receiving and entry into system.  Test Performance.  Recording and Reporting of results.  These major steps involve the application of the managerial functions of the supervisor.

5. Collection and Delivery of specimens An efficient acquisition and delivery of specimen workflow should include: 1. Regularly scheduled blood collection runs with specified contingencies for nonroutine requests. 2. A systematic delivery of specimens other than blood to the clinical laboratory. 3. A formal system for requesting clinical lab. Procedure. 4. Standard methods of specimen delivery to the clinical lab. sections. Blood and other specimens should arrive to the clinical lab. In a timely manner to assure smooth flow of the testing process. An example of a schedule for routine blood collection runs is 7:00 am, 11:00 am,3:00 pm, and 7:00 pm. If the institution has a large number of critical care and special units, it is usually necessary to make more frequent blood collection runs, these runs should be on a different timetable than the routine collection runs.

6. Specimen receiving and entry into system Steps carried out to receive a specimen:  Identification and Verification  Assigning of accession numbers to specimen and request slip.  Preparation of log sheets and/or worksheets.  Preparation and aliquoting of sample.  The physical arrangement must be considered; the logging process area should be adjacent to the receiving area, with centrifuges and sinks conveniently located.

7. Test Performance An effective workflow patterns must include:  The volume, variety and nature of procedures.  The instrumentation used in the clin. Lab.  The space and physical layout of the lab.  The type of institution for which service is provided. Clinical lab. Procedures fall into three categories:  Procedures must be performed immediately because either their nature or the demand for immediate results.  Procedures that are performed more or less continuously.  Procedures that can be deferred.

8.  Test scheduling must be developed in such a manner that the service provided meets the needs of those requiring it. Communication plays an important role in the success or failure of a plan to perform certain procedures on a scheduled basis.  The most effective way to communicate this information to physicians and nursing personnel is to maintain an up- to-date floor book which includes all necessary information (Table 2-1)

9. Recording and Reporting of results Tow systems are necessary: 1- a method of reporting stat results to the nursing unit as soon as they are available. (By telephone or by computer terminals). 2- a method of systematic delivery of routine reports.