Section 7.7 – Laboratory Management

Presentations attended related to laboratory management:

PathCape 2018

• Accreditation, Quality and Leadership – Prof A Zemlin – PathCape 17 August 2018
• Error Free Lab Work: Is it an achievable target? – Prof Yenice (Turkey) – PathCape 17 August 2018
• P4P (pay for performance) in Laboratory Medicine – Dr Orth (Germany) – PathCape 17 August 2018
• Accreditation – Prof Zima (Czech Republic) – PathCape 17 August 2018

Laboratory management course – University of Stellenbosch 02-05 November 2020

The laboratory management course which I attended through Stellenbosch University was an exciting experience. Although during COVID times, it wasn’t necessarily a trip to Stellenbosch where one could have a glas of wine at a local wine farm afterwards, but nonetheless it was an amazing experience. I have made friends with colleagues in other Pathology disciplines remotely and we needed to prepare a Strategic Business Plan and present it at the end of the course.

All talks attended were focussed on laboratory management. The skills learnt during this course will likely still bring much joy and productivity into my work life in future and the tools learnt to properly manage a laboratory are of enormous value.

There were tasks from as simple as a left-right quizz, to a QC workshop for our chemical pathology registrars with Levy-Jennings chart interpretation and the lot. Some of the most enjoyable topics for me were: Adding value to lab medicine, a topic often focussed on by Prof Annie Zemlin, effective laboratory leadership, focussed on by Prof Rajiv Erasmus, an effective laboratory leader in Chemical Pathology and the topic on Risk management by Prof Preiser. Together these topics which were presented (see below) made up an astounding course which brought together a few aspects rarely covered by other lecturers or even reading material elsewhere. This is what makes this course a must for future laboratory leaders.

Day 1 – 02 November 2020
Talk 1 – Leadership Skills For Effective Laboratory Management – Mandela’s Lessons – Prof RT Erasmus
Talk 2 – Laboratory Organization – Best Practice – Dr Z Chapanduka
Talk 3 – Ethical Leadership – Prof RT Erasmus
Talk 4 – Strategy And Leadership Strategic And Goal Planning For Effective Laboratory Management – Prof RT Erasmus
Talk 5 – Budget And Introduction Of New Tests – Prof AE Zemlin
Talk 6 – Laboratory Safety – Prof TS Pillay

Day2 – 03 November 2020
Talk 1 – Leading And Managing Change In The Laboratory – Prof G van Zyl
Talk 2 – Leadership And Diversity – Prof AE Zemlin
Talk 3 – Preventing And Managing Conflict In The Laboratory – Prof Schneider
Talk 4 – Risk Management In The Diagnostic Laboratory – Prof W Preiser
Talk 5 – POPIA For The Healthcare Professional – Dr C Swanepoel
Talk 6 – EBLM and Audit – Dr T Jalavu

Day3 – 04 November 2020
Talk 1 – Use Of Quality Management Tools To Assess And Improve Quality – Prof A Whitelaw
Talk 2 – Iso 15189 And Preparing The Lab For Accreditation – Prof AE Zemlin
Talk 3 – Non-Conformances & Document Control – Dr AA Khine
Talk 4.1 – Lean Management And Quality – Dr AA Khine
Talk 4.2 – Six Sigma Approach To Quality – Dr AA Khine
Talk 5 – Managing A POCT Service – Prof A Whitelaw
Talk 6 – Method Validation – Dr M Hoffmann
Talk 7 – Extra-Analytical Errors – Dr E Kruger

Day4 – 05 November 2020
Talk 1 – Harmonization, Standardization And Traceability – Dr T Jalavu
Talk 2 – Electronic Gatekeeping – Dr H Vreede
Talk 3 – Medico-legal aspects of laboratory practice and maintenance of the chain of evidence – Prof J Dempers
Talk 4 – Autoverification – Dr H Vreede
Talk 5 – Demand Management – Prof AE Zemlin
Talk 6 – Uncertainty Of Measurement – Dr E Kruger