Keeping it “On Time”, Always.

We understand that Turn Around Time (TAT) compliance and analysis are extremely important for maintaining high quality. This article talks about,in details, the TAT related features in Cloud Pathology (CP).

Feature Publish Date — 9th April 2019

Outline —

1. Defining test wise default TAT
2. Changing TAT in “NewTesting” in case of urgency or overload
3. TAT Compliance — Visibility and Alerts
4. TAT Analysis

Defining TAT

TAT in hours:mins can be specified in test edit panel

The first step towards ensuring TAT compliance is defining what is the Turn Around Time for each test.

To do so,

1. head over to Menu -> Test Management
2. Edit the test for which you would like to assign or modify TAT to. (To Edit, you can double click on a test name)
3. TAT can be entered in hours:mins format. If nothing is entered, default value of 12 hours is assumed.
4. Once TAT is assigned, it essentially means that, the test should be completed in that time.
5. The TAT timer is started when a test is accessioned, and ends when the test is authorized for publishing.
6. To help achieve better compliance, CP sends notifications and highlights the bill which has at least one test which might run for longer than its desired TAT.

Changing TAT in case of urgency or overload

By default a bill is created with default Turn Around Time for its tests. However, if a test report is to be released urgently, you can change its TAT to a lesser value when test is being added to the bill.

A test TAT for a bill can be changed from NT

The TAT changed in this way is only applicable to that bill. Just as we can reduce the desired TAT at bill level, we can also increase the TAT in case of overload or catastrophe.

Why go through all the trouble of defining the TAT ? Because when its done, CP will help you monitor and track the time taken by each test, and would also notify you, if any of the test is going to overrun beyond its normal TAT.

TAT Compliance

CP has two features to ensure maximum TAT compliance.

1. Visibility
2. Smart Alerts

1. Visibility

First things first, we need visibility on various TAT parameters before making any analysis or improvisations therefore.

The Home screen (MPD) always displays how much time the next due test has remaining for TAT compliance.

The next due test is the test that is TAT-wise next in line for release. e.g. If have following tests —

1. Haemogram (TAT — 8 hours)
2. Blood Group (TAT — 1 hour)
3. Urine Routine (TAT — 6 hours)

assuming all the samples are accessioned, the next due test is Blood Group, as it has the lowest TAT.

However if blood sample is not yet accessioned, and the urine sample is accessioned, the next due test is Urine Routine.

The next due test is updated in real time as sample are accessioned or tests are “checked” as the TAT timer runs from accession till authorization.

UI Examples :-

We are adding 3 tests

1. Haemogram (4 hours 35 mins TAT)

2. Blood Group (30 mins TAT)

3. Bilirubin (2 hours TAT)

When Initially none of the samples were accessioned, Due Time is shown as NA

As soon as a sample gets accessioned, “Due In” gets updated

When all multiple samples are accessioned, the test having lowest TAT is displayed in the “Due In” area with its remaining time

As tests get complete (authorized), “Due In” area shows the next lowest TAT test’s remaining timing is displayed

When all tests are completed (Authorized), a compliance percentage is shown

Compliance Percentage

(no_of_tests done within TAT) / (total number of tests)

In future releases , We will also be supporting a TAT compliance report in “management reports” which will list down compliance percentage for all bills as per report filter. This help enable you troubleshoot upon TAT compliance improvements if needed.

TAT overview

when clicked on the string next to clock icon in “Due In” column, a TAT overview is shown as below —

TAT overview table

Terms —

1. Ex. TAT (def/Given) — Expected TAT in Default/Given format. Given is the TAT given by user at “NewTesting” In a normal situation default and given expected TAT are the same. If default and given TATs are not same, they are highlighted with bold and asterisk (Like shown in picture)
2. Achvd. TAT — It’s the actual TAT that was delivered.

If given TAT is different than default TAT, it is also reflected on test list

The blue clock icon means, given TAT is different than default TAT

2. Smart Alerts

In order to achieve maximum compliance, and prevent TAT overruns, CP provides two smart alerts —

1. WARNING — When 10% or 25 mins time of “next due test” is remaining, whichever is smaller.
2. OVERDUE — When TAT timer of “next due test” expires, and test overruns its defined TAT.
3. STAT sample — When TAT of a test is changed during registration, the test gets marked as “critical” and a STAT sample alert is shown.

The first alert is aimed at preventing TAT overruns, and the second alert is aimed at informing the already done damage.

Yellow — TAT warning | Red — TAT Overdue

On click of warning or overdue buttons on action bar, a filter is applied and only TAT-warning or TAT-overdue bills are shown respectively.

Tn future releases, the TAT related notifications can be sent on mobile apps as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, we would love to hear your thoughts.