Systems Based Practice

Residents must demonstrate an awareness and responsiveness to the larger context and system of health care and the ability to call on system resources to provide pathology services that are of optimal value. Residents are expected to understand how molecular diagnostics practices affect health care decisions for patients and the health care system, including the many times substantial cost of testing. This includes:

• Demonstrating an understanding of the role of the clinical laboratory in the healthcare system.
• Demonstrating an ability to design resource-effective diagnostic plans based on knowledge of best practices in collaboration with other clinicians.
• Demonstrating knowledge of basic healthcare reimbursement methods.
• Demonstrating knowledge of the laboratory regulatory environment, including licensing authorities; federal, state, and local public health rules and regulations; regulatory agencies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the US Food and Drug Administration; and accrediting agencies such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), CAP, and the ACGME.
• Understanding and implementing policies to continually improve patient safety as they relate to clinical laboratory testing at all levels.
• Understand the principles involved in public health perinatal genetic testing paradigms
• Senior residents (PGY3-4) attend the CP QA committee meetings to discuss how to partner with the administrative and technical staff to assess, coordinate, and improve health care and know how these activities can affect system performance.
• Senior residents (PGY3-4) may also inspect the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory during a CAP inspection, and/or perform mock inspection of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory.