Set Turnaround-Time Targets and Watch for Breaches
Who / when: Dr. Bello, the lab admin, sets the turnaround goals the lab commits to; Chika and the bench team work to them. Turnaround time (TAT = Turnaround Time) is how long a result took — the minutes from when a sample was received (accessioned) to when its result was verified and released. Setting targets makes the lab accountable for speed, and the Breach List shows exactly which results missed.
A breach is a released result whose actual turnaround exceeded its target. The most specific target wins: a target on a test code beats one on the whole section, and a priority-specific target beats an all-priority one.
We’ll follow Dr. Bello setting a target, then reading the breaches.
- Lab Admin — open Labs → TAT Monitor. It has two tabs: “Targets” and “Breach List”.
- Lab Admin — on the “Targets” tab, add a target: choose its scope — a single test code or a whole lab section (e.g. Chemistry) — an optional priority (Routine, Urgent or STAT, or leave it all-priority), and the target in minutes. Save it. To remove a target, use its row control.
- Lab Admin — switch to the “Breach List” tab. The readouts show, for the window, how many results were Measured, how many Breached, and the Median and P90 (90th-percentile) turnaround in minutes. The list below names each breached result with its actual versus target minutes, so you can see exactly which ones ran late and by how much.
What happens next
Section titled “What happens next”A persistent breach pattern — a section that keeps missing its STAT target, say — is a quality signal worth documenting and fixing. Raise it as a corrective action so the cause and the resolution are recorded and signed, exactly the evidence an accreditor expects. The Breach List gives you the what; the corrective action gives you the fix.