Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality

Organization (Website) Origin: Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM) (https://www.improvediagnosis.org/) ACT for Better Diagnosis (https://www.betterdiagnosis.org)

Topic Brief:
Coalition to Improve Diagnosis Member Spotlight – ASCLS: Moving Out of the Laboratory Silos
The following is an excerpt from an interview with Brandy Gunsolus, DCLS, MLS(ASCP)CM, and Lezlee Koch, MT(ASCP), of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) Patient Safety Committee. The ASCLS is the preeminent organization for clinical laboratory science practitioners. (The full article can be accessed at the URL below.)

Tell us a bit about ASCLS and the steps your organization has taken to address diagnostic quality?
"As a membership organization with more than 630,000 clinical lab professionals, students, and educators, we see it as our responsibility to teach laboratorians that they are a critical cog in the wheel that drives patient safety," said Lezlee Koch, MT(ASCP).

With this in mind, ASCLS formed the Patient Safety Committee, of which both Koch and her colleague, Brandy Gunsolus, DCLS, MLS(ASCP)CM, are members.

"We knew that in order to prevent errors from happening, all the players needed to have a role in quality care," said Koch. "So we decided to develop patient safety tools and educational materials not only for laboratorians, but for patients and providers."

What steps did you take to integrate and educate those groups?
"Our first step was developing educational brochures," said Koch. "We wanted patients and families to have the information necessary to have a meaningful conversation with their clinician, and we wanted to teach people how to collect quality samples so that pre-analytical errors don't impact the diagnosis."

What about the educational tools you developed for providers?
"Laboratorians have a wealth of information, but we realized that there was a knowledge gap between the laboratorians and the clinicians," said Gunsolus. "They weren't really working together or communicating; they just stayed in their silos." (Access complete spotlight article)


ACT for Better Diagnosis URL: https://betterdiagnosis.org/
ASCLS Spotlight Article URL: https://betterdiagnosis.org/moving-out-of-the-laboratory-silos/

ACT for Better Diagnosis Updates
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Lezlee Koch, ASCLS Patient Safety Committee
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