Hamilton House in London was the venue for the PQT Conference, the first in a series of one-day events organised by Pathology in Practice. Each speaker provided a summary and these are reproduced here.
Recently, Pathology in Practice hosted the first in a series of one-day conferences designed to provide those in laboratory medicine with the information needed to meet the professional challenges found in the modern healthcare environment. The PQT Conference covered professional issues such as the introduction of key performance indicators (KPIs), quality, the accreditation of a point-of-care testing service, and continuing professional development from the IBMS and HCPC perspective, and training. In addition, it provided the opportunity for delegates to debate the issues with the speakers and their peers.
The Key to Quality
Assessment of the clinical quality of a pathology service has relied on accreditation, simple measures of speed of service delivery (eg turnaround times) and the training and experience of staff providing the service. The clinical impact of pathology in an organisation tends to be hidden in global statistics that organisations are required to submit for the Care Quality Commission and national audits. Pathology staff are well aware of the value of their work and key indicators can provide a way of demonstrating this value using nationally agreed processes and standards. Key performance indicators (KPIs) were developed by members of the IBMS, the ACB, UKAS and the RCPath. Not intended to be the only measures of a clinical service, they are useful for those interested in knowing how good is their pathology service. The history of the KPI development, the pilot underway and the impact of the Department of Health review into quality assurance were discussed.
Key Performance Indicators: View from the Laboratory
This presentation provided a laboratory perspective of the provision of a quality service and the use of KPIs in fulfilling that aim. The following questions were posed, and answers provided: What are they and why measure them? What constitutes a quality service? Assessing the quality of our service; do we have responsibility where we have no authority? How can we influence clinical pathways and senior executive management?
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