Paper Title
Applying Lean Tools in the Clinical Laboratory to Reduce Turnaround Time For Blood Test Results
Abstract
Clinical laboratories are working with almost all clinics in a hospital settlement. They are always expected
providing with reliable and on time blood test results by emergency departments, operating rooms, catheterization
laboratories and other inpatient clinics. Not only inpatient clinics but also outpatient clinics are demanding time wise since
they might be also critical. As a basis of our previous study named “Applying lean six sigma improvement methodology to
increase catheterization laboratory efficiency”, we have measured waiting time of patients at each processes from admission
until discharge during catheterization laboratory operations. We realized patient-waiting time, late start of first procedures
and procedure cancellations are the biggest problems. Pareto analysis has shown that the biggest (30%) contributor of late
starts in the cath lab was late blood test results. In this study we aimed reducing blood test delays more than half.
Keywords- Clinical laboratory, Catheterization laboratory, Healthcare, Lean six sigma, Operational efficiency