The Warwick system of prospective workload allocation in cellular pathology—an aid to subspecialisation: a comparison with the Royal College of Pathologists system

摘要

BackgroundGuidelines on staffing and workload for histopathology and cytopathology departments was published by the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) in July 2003. In this document, a system is provided whereby the workload of a cellular pathology department and individual pathologists can be assessed with a scoring system based on specialty and complexity of the specimens. A similar, but simplified, system of scoring specimens by specialty was developed in the Warwick District General Hospital. The system was based on the specimen type and suggested clinical diagnosis, so that specimens could be allocated prospectively by the laboratory technical staff to even out workload and support subspecialisation in a department staffed by 4.6 whole‐time equivalent consultant pathologists.