Pathology Archive Management: Cost Analysis and the Case for Digital Tracking Systems
This Journal of Clinical Pathology review examines the often-overlooked economics of specimen archiving in pathology laboratories, including facility setup, equipment, inventory management, and ongoing conservation costs. The authors find that historically flawed tracking systems pose risks to patient safety and legal liability. They argue that the digital pathology era presents an opportunity to implement automated, tracked archiving processes that improve quality, efficiency, and patient care, while providing a framework for return-on-investment analysis.
The original study
Cost analysis of archives in the pathology laboratories: from safety to management.
- Authors
- Eccher A, Dei Tos AP, Scarpa A, L'Imperio V, Munari E, Troncone G, et al.
- Journal
- Journal of clinical pathology
- Type
- Review, Journal Article
- PMID
- 37532289
Original abstract
CONTEXT: Despite the reluctance to invest and the challenging estimation of necessary supporting costs, optimising the archives seems to be one of the hottest topics in the future management of the pathology laboratories. Historically, archives were only partially designed to securely store and organise tissue specimens, and tracking systems were often flawed, posing significant risks to patients' health and legal ramifications for pathologists. OBJECTIVE: The current review explores the available data from the literature on archives' management in pathology, including comprehensive business plans, structure setup, outfit, inventories, ongoing conservation and functional charges. DATA SOURCES: Electronic searches in PubMed-MEDLINE and Embase were made to extract pertinent articles from the literature. Works about the archiving process and storage were included and analysed to extract information. Prepublication servers were ignored. Italian Institutional Regional databases for public competitive bidding processes were queried too. CONCLUSIONS: A new emergent feeling in the pathology laboratory is growing for archives management; the digital pathology era is a great opportunity to apply innovation to tracking systems and samples preservation. The main aim is a critical evaluation of the return of investment in developing automatic and tracked archiving processes for improving not only quality, efficacy and efficiency of the labs but also patients' healthcare.