Quality assurance indicators in anatomic pathology.

Quality assurance indicators in anatomic pathology focus on both technical and cognitive processes that result in a written report. The written report serves as both an intermediate outcome, which, in part, determines patient care outcomes, and a source of information for quality assurance studies. General requirements of a program include procedures that meet Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations requirements for data gathering, data analysis, action, and effectiveness evaluation; documentation; and personnel standards. Specific indicators in surgical pathology and cytopathology focus on timeliness of reports, diagnostic accuracy, relevance of information in reports to the care of the patient, and proficiency testing. Cytopathology requires some unique indicators because of its dual screening and diagnostic role, including detection of false-negative results and comparison of cytotechnologist and cytopathologist diagnoses. Quality assurance indicators for the autopsy include those for the autopsy pathology as a subdiscipline of pathology as well as those that integrate autopsy information into a program of clinical quality assurance.