Washington, D.C., April 8, 2008 – The American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) presents an audioconference Improving the Reporting of Critical Results II on June 10 at 2:00 pm (Eastern US time). The audioconference will last 90 minutes.
The timely and accurate reporting of critical values to clinicians is an important aspect of patient safety. Studies show that physicians act on 65 percent of the critical results that are communicated to them, often making changes to therapy that save patients' lives. JCAHO's National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) outline how labs can be proactive in reporting critical values, but questions remain about how to get these results to appropriate caregivers in a timely manner. During this important audioconference, leading experts will share data from studies of the critical result reporting practices of more than a hundred CAP-accredited laboratories and discuss steps labs can take to ensure their post-test communications are managed in a way that leads to the best results for patients.
The faculty for the audioconference is:
- Anand S. Dighe, MD, PhD
Director, Core Lab, Director, Information Management in the Department of Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA;
- Michael Astion, MD, PhD
Professor and Director, Reference Laboratory Services, Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA;
- Elizabeth A. Wagar, MD
Clinical Professor and Laboratory Director, UCLA Clinical Laboratories, Los Angeles, CA.
They will outline which benchmarks laboratories should use to develop and maintain critical values as well as best practices for critical values notification. They will also discuss how to document critical result reporting activities, track progress and how to reduce miscommunication and undocumented notification of critical results
AACC invites members of the press to attend the audioconference at no charge. To register, please contact Peter Patterson or by phone on (202) 835-8718 or 1-800-892-1400 ext 1718. For more information about this audioconference and other educational events, visit the AACC website at Meetings & Events.
The audioconference is sponsored by a generous educational grant from Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics.