First few Article Sentences
Today, more than ever, health care providers are facing increased demands to control costs and address patient safety issues. One attractive area for all medical specialties is to reduce errors. Published data indicate that laboratory services, while consuming about 10% of the health care budget, drive 60-70% of health care decisions.1 In no area is this more apparent than Anatomic Pathology, where patients experience surgery, radiation, chemotherapeutic and other treatments – all critically dependent on the accuracy of pathologic diagnosis.
An April 2009 article in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology by Zarbo et al at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit2 showed a dramatic reduction in anatomic pathology errors (62% reduction in misidentified cases and 95% reduction in slide misidentification) after implementing a bar code labeling system throughout their work process. Our own experience is much the same. Applying grocery store technology is not as glamorous as delivering a chemotherapeutic agent directly to its target by monoclonal antibody, but it has substantially improved patient care.