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August 22, 2023
Geisinger: Expanding CLSI Access With Health System Membership
Overview
Diana L. Kremitske, MHA, MS, MLS (ASCP), Vice President Institute Operations, Laboratory Medicine and Barbara Booth, BS, MT (ASCP) CPHQ, Laboratory Quality Systems Senior Coordinator from Geisinger, share how CLSI Health System Membership benefited Geisinger and how Geisinger used CLSI standards to implement quality initiatives such as Business Continuity Planning.
The Situation & Challenge
Geisinger Healthcare is a fully integrated health system serving approximately 4.2 million Pennsylvania and New Jersey residents. The system offers clinical and research services, and Geisinger provides approximately 15 million billable procedures per year. It has been listed repeatedly as one of the Best Hospitals in America.
As an innovative health service with multiple research and laboratory institutions, Geisinger approached CLSI for guidance in supporting its business continuity planning. The goal? To build the protocols and systems to ensure laboratory services remain uninterrupted with minimal impact on patients and services in the event of a disaster.
The Outcome
Geisinger was able to leverage its organization membership to avail of CLSI quality standards and training to help develop a Disaster Plan.Â
Then the team worked to implement guidance from CLSI GP36 | Planning for Laboratory Operations During a Disaster to design a plan that included:
- Checklists and tables for guidance about media communications.
- Plans for human resource issues.
- A contingency plan for vendor supply disruptions.
- A restricted test menu.
- A comprehensive grid listing staff member competencies.
- A contingency plan for backup testing at other facilities within Geisinger’s region.
“We looked around for quality management resources. CLSI has a 13 credit Laboratory Quality Management System (LQMS) course, and we were able to have over 20 people at multiple locations take that course because of our Health System Membership discount. That was really the start of our deeper dive into looking at our current quality management system.”
The Results
The plan was tested through tabletop scenarios, resulting in a positive after-action report that described strengths and opportunities for improvement.
Together, these CLSI resources helped Geisinger develop a comprehensive Master Disaster plan for all its testing sites.
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