RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Cost analysis of archives in the pathology laboratories: from safety to management
JF Journal of Clinical Pathology
JO J Clin Pathol
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Association of Clinical Pathologists
SP 659
OP 663
DO 10.1136/jcp-2023-209035
VO 76
IS 10
A1 Eccher, Albino
A1 Dei Tos, Angelo Paolo
A1 Scarpa, Aldo
A1 L'Imperio, Vincenzo
A1 Munari, Enrico
A1 Troncone, Giancarlo
A1 Naccarato, Antonio Giuseppe
A1 Seminati, Davide
A1 Pagni, Fabio
YR 2023
UL http://jcp.bmj.com/content/76/10/659.abstract
AB 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.