Hi Christine,

I work in the histology lab of the pathology department at a pharmaceutical
company in Germany. We process mostly rodent and dog tissues and bones,
between 40 and 60 cuts a day per tech. And by our standards, it's true, 2
hours for embedding and cutting (you might have to cool the blocks down
first or you might have problems cutting the blocks caused by calcifcations
etc.--that all needs additional time) is pretty demanding. I would give your
junior tech 3, maybe 4 hours for embedding and cutting. He/she should be
able to save time  staining and labeling the cuts. Here is an example, from
my point of view, how to relax the time constraints for your junior tech
without losing too much time:

start                                              7:30
finish cutting                               11:30
drying cuts, preparing the stain   12:00
staining, preparing the labels      12:30 (depends on your H&E )
coverslipping, labelling              13:00    -------- this would be the
longest processing. It should be mostly ready at

12:00 pm. and you would have a lucky junior!
All best,
Joachim

Joachim Siegmund, BTA
Hamburg/ Germany

jsiegmu@ibm.net
joachim.siegmund@gmx.net


----- Original Message -----
From: Christine Lee <C.Lee@Mailbox.uq.edu.au>
To: <Histonet@Pathology.swmed.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 1999 3:19 AM
Subject: work organisation


> I would be very grateful to hear from other Veterinary diagnostic
histology
> laboratories details of therir work organisation.
>
> We have 1.5 technicians.
> Our processor starts at    5.50pm.
>               finishes at  7.00am.
>
>
> The junior tech. starts work at 7.30. Our workload averages 30-40
blocks/day.
> Last year we cut 27,000 slides.
>
> I  expect the tech to have finished embeding and cutting at 9.30.
> (a)   So that the turn around time is consistant.
> (b)   To avoid any risk of R.S.I.
>
>
> The slides are dried for 30 mins at 60 degrees then H&E stained on an
> automatic staining machine.
>
> I expect that the staining and coversliping and labeling will be completed
> by 11.30a.m. although mostly it is finished more kike 11.45.
>
>  I would be very grateful for input from other Veterinary diagnostic
> laboratories and in particular University laboratories.
>
> I am being accused of "harsh supervision" as these performance measurments
> are I am told, "ok for the human medicine world but the expectations are
> unrealistic for the Veterinary world. I disagree as our main clients are
an
> trainee Veterinary pathologists/animal hospital, with clients waiting
> anxiously for the diagnosis on their pets. These are the only reference
time
> frames I stipulate.
>
> Could other similar Veterinary diagnostic laboratories let me know how
they
> operate.
>
> Christine Lee,
> Senior Scientific officer,
> Veterinary Pathology and Anatomy,
> University of Queensland.
> C.lee@mailbox.uq.edu.au
>
>
>