Mary, 

1. Has anything like this ever happened to your lab?  If so, how was it
handled?  (Peggy Wenk - Please give me feed back too)

Do you mean how was the error handled? It sounds like an unfortunate
mistake. We do not let anyone near our machines without proper training. We
would first look at why the error happened and see what we could have done
differently to the "system" we have in place to see how we might change
things to prevent an error like this in the future. If someone makes a
serious error such as the one you describe, they are "coached" by the
supervisor. If another similar error is made they are given an informal
counseling. If another, they are given a written counseling. After a few
written counselings in a period of time, the employee becomes a liability.
Pathologists do not do the counseling. It is always important that the
person making the error is treated with respect. My 2 cents.

2. We are a smallish hospital lab with an extensive outreach.  We do 50,000
blocks per year - 15,000 cytology cases, 15,000 surgical cases.  We have 0
lab assistants, 0 cytology prep-techs (HT, HTL do this), 3 HTs, 1 HTL and 1
HT - Team Leader that manages all aspects of AP.  My question is what is
your staffing if you are similar in size and function to us... OR what
staffing recommendations would you make.

We did 10,000 cases, 35,891 blocks, 68,541 slides, 1,487 frozens, 4,817
special stains, 782 immunos, and 2,861 decals last year. We have 2 lab
assistants, 1 one pathologist's assistant, 5 histotechs, and a team leader.
We do not do cytoprep; there is an assistant in cytology. It is hard to
compare one workload to another based on numbers alone, but it sounds like
you do more work and have significantly less people. I am not entirely sure
if you are grossly understaffed or if I am incredibly lucky! Seems like
everyone here has plenty to do and stays busy. I do find we have enough time
to do things well and feel good about what we do.

Marg
Supervisor, Anatomic Pathology
Eisenhower Medical Center
39-000 Bob Hope Drive
Rancho Mirage, CA 92270