I am a Canadian trained tech and back home we used to have to record workload units that had to be reported to the Ministry of Health. The Ministry set a standard of one workload unit per minute and a study was conducted to calculate the amount of time it took a tech to complete a task/test and so all tests were assigned a workload value. For example, an H&E was worth one test and seven units. So Rene is correct in how to come up with your values, but don't forget the non testing tasks that also need to be carried out such as doing your QC, filing blocks, changing the processors etc. All these things take time, but are not considered a 'test'. We would use our workload units to validate to administration our need for more staff. The justification was that if it took one minute to generate one workload unit, than a tech could not safely do more than 60 units per hour. When the workload units became more than what the number of your staff should be producing for a set period of time, than you were risking patient safety. Until ASCP or an equivalent lab governing body come up with the definition of a workload unit, coming up with your own might be a moot point.
Joanne Clark, HT Histology Supervisor Path Consultants of New Mexico Roswell ------------------------------ Message: 1 Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:01:08 -0800 From: "Fierke, Vaughn " <vaughn.fie...@va.gov> Subject: [Histonet] Work Load Units To: <histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu> Message-ID: <c31e309002946d458e571dbb0803f4a3c68...@vhav20msga3.v20.med.va.gov> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Looking for a good system that works in recording Work Load Units. I've inquired to CAP; they do not have any material available at this time nor recommendations. I've looked at CPT codes but they only reflect billable services in pathology; descriptions are fairly general and cannot be broken down into tasks of the tech. Looked in the Histonet archives; found information not too current. Thanks for any information. Vaughn _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet