UW Health American Family Children's Hospital, Madison

The Medical Assistants and Clinic Assistant staff at the American Family Children’s Hospital specialties clinic devoted significant time to daily quality control checks for HgBA1C, a test used infrequently in pediatric specialty clinics. Each day, about 10 minutes of staff time were spent performing these checks, with approximately 2 cartridges used daily, totaling $14.12/day in costs. With each cartridge priced at $7.06, the monthly expense amounted to approximately $282.35, not including additional costs incurred due to errors. This resulted in a minimum annual cost of $3,388.20, in addition to paid staff time.

Recognizing the inefficiency and resource drain of this process, the project team delved deeper using the '5 Whys' improvement tool to understand the underlying reasons for this practice. They collaborated with point-of-care lab leadership to explore regulatory requirements and made informed decisions with this information. The team began questioning the necessity of the process in September 2022, with the bulk of the project completed by 2023.