Journal:Project management in laboratory medicine

Full article title	Project management in laboratory medicine
Journal	Journal of Medical Biochemistry
Author(s)	Lippi, Guiseppe; Mattiuzi, Camilla
Author affiliation(s)	University of Verona, Provincial Agency for Social and Sanitary Services (Trento, Italy)
Primary contact	Email: giuseppe dot lippi at univr dot it
Year published	2019
Volume and issue	38(4)
Page(s)	401–6
DOI	10.2478/jomb-2019-0021
ISSN	1452-8266
Distribution license	Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Website	https://content.sciendo.com/contentpage/
Download	https://content.sciendo.com/downloadpdf/journals/jomb/38/4/article-p401.xml (PDF)

Abstract

The role and responsibilities of laboratory managers have considerably evolved during the past decades. This revolution has been mostly driven by biological, technical, economic, and social factors, such as a deepened understanding of the pathophysiology of human diseases, technical innovations, renewed focus on patient safety, cost-containment strategies and patient empowerment. One of the leading consequences is an ongoing process of reorganization, consolidation, and automation of laboratory services, whose propitious realization strongly relies on establishing an efficient project management plan. In a practical perspective, the leading drivers of project management in laboratory medicine encompass various activities supporting a clear definition of the local environment, an accurate planning of technical resources, the acknowledgement of staff availability and qualification, along with the establishment of a positive and constructive interplay with hospital administrators. Therefore, the aim of this article is to provide a personal overview on the main drivers and outcomes of project management in laboratory medicine, which will expectedly contribute to construct a new consciousness and an innovative and multifaceted job description of laboratory professionals worldwide.

Keywords: laboratory medicine, diagnostic testing, project management, automation

Introduction

Laboratory medicine is conventionally defined as a science committed to generate clinical information through analysis of concentration, composition, and/or structure of different analytes in different biological fluids. To be thoughtfully capable of providing a valued contribution to clinical decision making, laboratory medicine services shall hence be developed and organized for maximizing productive efficiency and optimizing clinical efficacy. Unlike many years ago, when healthcare services were not so strongly plagued by shortage of funding and could benefit from ample economic resources, the current scenario is now overwhelmed by an unprecedented worldwide economic crisis, which has also obligated laboratory managers to increase volume and complexity of testing, contextually preserving quality and cutting down costs. This altered scenario has inevitably forced laboratory managers and laboratory professionals to become familiar with many different tools borrowed from other professions, such as leadership skills, budgeting activities and, last but not least, project management.

According to a common inception, project management can be defined as the practice of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and closing a specific work, aimed at achieving specific goals at a specified time. Project management is hence conventionally dictated by six main paradigms: efficiency, efficacy, quality, safety, sustainability, and satisfaction. The practical translation of these essential factors in the field of laboratory medicine is summarized in Table I. Briefly, efficiency implies achieving maximum laboratory productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense, while efficacy is mainly directed towards improving diagnoses and clinical outcomes. Quality encompasses reaching the highest possible degree of reliability and safety of laboratory data, safety develops through limiting the risk of injury or damage to patients and staff, and sustainability requires avoiding depletion of human and economic resources. Finally, satisfaction is achieved by fulfilling wishes, expectations, or needs of both laboratory staff and its stakeholders (i.e., patients and doctors). From a practical perspective, the main drivers of project management in laboratory medicine encompass some fundamental but not essentially sequential steps, which entail a clear definition of the environment, an accurate planning of technical resources, and the acknowledgement of staff availability and qualification, along with the establishment of a positive and constructive interplay with hospital administrators.

Table 1. The six paradigms of project management in laboratory medicine Paradigm Description Efficiency To achieve maximum laboratory productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense Efficacy To achieve better diagnoses and improved clinical outcomes Quality To develop the highest possible degree of reliability and safety in test results Safety To limit the risk of injury or damage to patients and laboratory staff Sustainability To avoid depleting human and economic resources Satisfaction To fulfill both laboratory staff and stakeholders’ (i.e., patients’, doctors’) wishes, expectations, and needs

Notes

This presentation is faithful to the original, with only a few minor changes to presentation, spelling, and grammar. We also added PMCID and DOI when they were missing from the original reference. Otherwise, in accordance with the NoDerivatives portion of the original license, nothing else has been changed.