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Review: R E Nakhleh What is quality in surgical pathology? J Clin Pathol 2006; 59: 669-672 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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A quality work?

Jeevan P Marasinghe, Amarasinghe A A W,MD, Mcdonough, Georgia, USA.   (20 July 2006)

A quality work? 20 July 2006
Jeevan P Marasinghe, Registrar in Obstetrics and Gynecology,General Hospital( Teaching), Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. , Amarasinghe A A W,MD, Mcdonough, Georgia, USA. Send letter to journal: Re: A quality work? jeevanmarasinghe{at}yahoo.com Jeevan P Marasinghe, et al.	Dear Editor, Nakhleh R E (1) has excelled in giving us a brilliant account on the quality assuarance and improvement plan in surgical pathological reporting in a nutshell. An accurate, comprehensive, brief and timely surgical pathology report would always facilitate the optimum management of the patient and it would also satisfy the needs of the customer, in this case the clinician.Undoubtably all the clinicians would value and admire a well focused, informative and well directed surgical pathology report. The final product of complete surgical pathology report is multifactorial and it necessitates a multidisciplinary approach. Request forms have to be well written with a short and a well directed clinical history. It should elaborate the crux of the matter and be stressed to all clinicians should be stressed the importance of it regardless of the place in the hierarchical structure. Specimen collection, analyzing, labeling, transporting to the labouratory, reporting, report correction, verification and report delivery should occur in a sequential well directed flow. The reporting has to be performed in a well formatted structured manner and this kind of standardized proforma leads to better quality surgical pathology reports(2). Most institutions have their own proforma in reporting histopathological specimens. But unfortunately people find it difficult to adhere to a system (3) and some of the forms are found to be incomplete. This highlights the importance of training and motivating the work force. There seems to be wide variation in interpretation of phrases used in histopathology reports between pathologists and clinicians (4). Interdisciplinary meetings have to be conducted frequently and they would summarize the clinical findings, biochemical findings and finally the histological findings and they would culminate to facilitate the management plan of the patient concerned. They should be considered as essential ingredients in the formula for a better patient care. Moreover there should always be a better way of communication between the clinician and the pathologist when summating to an optimal management plan. So it would have been better if the review by Nakhleh R E had included few words on the importance of communication between the clinician and the pathologist, the importance of adhering to proforma when reporting, and interdisciplinary meetings. References (1) Nakhleh R E .What is quality in surgical pathology? Journal of clinical pathology 2006; 59:669-72. (2) Beattie G C.Improvement in quality colorectal cancer pathology reporting with a standardized proforma-a comparative study. Colorectal Disease November 2003; Vol 5:558. (3) Nagetaal I D.Pathology data in the central databases of multicenter randomized trials needs to be based on pathology reports and controlled by trained quality managers. Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 18, Issue 8, (April), 2000:1771-1779. (4) Hewavisenthi SJ De S, Fernando P.Use and interpretation of phrases in histopathology reports. Ceylon Medical Journal 2005; 1:37-38.