Pilot study to estimate the workload of high-level technicians in anatomical pathology and cytodiagnosis (technical time): Document produced by the working groups of Anatomic Pathology and Cytodiagnostics Higher Technician and on Applied Management and Quality of the Spanish Society of Anatomical Pathology (SEAP)

Abstract

Objective

To determine the time spent by technical staff in the anatomical pathology department on each of the processes in which they were involved, and to define a workload unit.

Methods

The time required for technical procedures was measured over 5 days in 10 hospitals. The median time for each process was calculated.

Results

The time required for registration was 3.92 min/specimen; for embedding of small specimens, 1.96 min/specimen; for embedding of large specimens 10.91 min/specimen; for microtomy, 1.01 min/specimen; for immunohistochemistry, 2.13 min/specimen; for liquid-based cytology, 4.02 min/specimen; and for archiving, 0.49 min/specimen.

Conclusions

The technical workload unit (TWU) is set at 11 min, corresponding to the rounding of 10.91 min/specimen for large-specimen embedding, as this is the most time-consuming task. Thus, TWU values range from 0.09 TWU/specimen for block preparation and sectioning to 1 TWU/specimen for large-specimen embedding.