More complicated than it might appear, Pap test turnaround time has attracted its share of debate. You don't want to rush cytotechnologists. There are major lawsuits during screening already because labs supposedly missed this needle in a haystack. And trying to get cytotechnologists to screen faster to meet a turnaround time target could be asking for more trouble. That there is often a wait for results is no surprise, says Diane D. Davey, MD, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and director of cytopathology at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center, Lexington.
Technologists are in short supply, and cytotechnologist slots are especially hard to fill.
But a factor the lab may not have much control over is the shortage of technologists. In the future, we may have better screening instruments that can help eliminate more of the manual screening time, but that's not a reality right now. Meanwhile, the University of Iowa lab forges ahead. Zaleski's next step is to survey clinicians to gauge their perceptions of turnaround time and assess their expectations. But whatever the survey finds, laboratorians at the University of Iowa have seen that industrial engineering methods work in health care, says Iowa's Dr. Cohen.