White Papers

An Overview of Lean Principles in the Laboratory

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Describes how Mayo Medical Laboratories used Lean principles to accomplish the following goals:

• Improved operational performance (faster testing turnaround time, decrease in costs and improved quality)
• Reduced variability in operational performance
• Operations management approach as an end-to-end discipline
• Improved patient and employee safety
• Improved employee morale
• Reduction in development time for new tests
• Reduction in testing defects and errors during new test development and implementation

TAT Reduction through workflow improvement in Renal Function Lab

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This paper is based on the application of lean principles to improve workflow in the Renal Function Laboratory at Mayo Clinic Rochester campus.

Continuous Improvement Initiative for Reduction of Assay Failure Frequencies: A Comparison of Immunoassay Technologies

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Purpose of Study: Determine if changing from a plate-based EIA to a bead-based multiplex technology for the detection of autoantibodies results in a decrease in the frequency of assay failures.

Conclusion: Implementation of the bead-based multiplex immunoassays for autoantibodies associated with CTDs resulted in a significant reduction of assay failure rates in comparison to the plate-based EIAs.  This leads to an improvement in the quality of testing provided by the laboratory and has a positive impact on patient care.

Human Cell Therapy Laboratory Improvement Project

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Describes how the Human Cell Therapy lean team reorganized the freezing process of peripheral blood stem cells, accomplishing the following goals:

• Decreased turnaround time from receipt of product to sample sent for CD34 testing, thus improving resulting time
• Standardized workstations
• Improved sample segregation
• Reduced travel time in lab
• Better utilization of space
• Improved weekend workload communication with Apheresis
• Improved capacity
• Better traceability
• Improved workload balance
  

Lean Principles in the Laboratory: Efficient Laboratory Space Design

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Describes how Lean principles were used to design a new laboratory from start to finish, accomplishing the following objectives:

• Minimized specimen handling
• Minimized employee walking distance
• Increased overall operational efficiency

Lean Principles in the Laboratory: Saint Marys Hospital - Inpatient Phlebotomy

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Describes how Lean principles were used to address the uneven distribution of workload between phlebotomists, accomplishing the following objectives:

• Fair, balanced, and equitable workload
• Improved teamwork

Special Coagulation Laboratory Layout Improvements

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Describes how an effective laboratory facility design improved the Special Coagulation Laboratory, accomplishing the following goals:

• Eliminated throughput interruptions for reagent change-over to complete the factor assays
• Increased clinical production space for the addition of another MDA instrument, by reclaiming space used for non-value add activities
• Created work cells by consolidating related instruments and activities where possible