Volume

[jupiterianvibe]

How many trays per day do you sign out?

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[coroner]

Yesterday I had 2. Today I had 8. (not including cytos)

 

[cmz]

Trays containing what?? I had five trays today. One of them had a breast case (not difficult, but time consuming). The others had a mix of GI, gyn, and routine surgicals. Two trays of cyto (one EUS pancreas and the standard lot of pleural effusions, etc).

 

[yaah]

Totally varies. We base our workload somewhat on "slide count" where one histology slide counts as one slide (obviously) and other duties get a slide equivalent. So a 12 core prostate is 12-16 slides, a prostatectomy is 20 slides, breast core is 3 slides, transbronc bx is 2 slides, etc. So covering the heme lab for the day and looking at whatever is flagged by the techs counts as 20 credits, signing out flow cases is 20 credits (no matter how many there are, ranges from 2-10). Covering cytology gets a flat credit whether it is 8 cases or 25 cases. I have had days where I had 8 trays full of non-gyn cyto. Most days I have around 120 "slide credits" but has been as high as 280, as low as 40. We don't count meetings and offsite stuff in the credits usually. Slide credits are attempted to be distributed relatively evenly but it is never exact because of subspecialty volume differences.

 

[musom]

In training I would do 16-24 trays/day. In fellowship I could do 400+ blocks of breast/gyn only (a miserable day). Now, I sign out 2-4 "trays" of gallbags, TA's and some GU stuff plus a tray or so of IHC. Typically about 20-10 patients/day with a 1.6ish specimen/accession ratio. Ends up being about 60-120 blocks of tissue and a volume of 4500 plus or minus.

 

[icpshootyz]

We don't go by trays here, either, but by slide count, with the attempt to give everyone equal slide numbers depending on what they're covering. Similar to yaah's experience certain things like heme slides are weighted heavier given the added work they entail. But we average around 120 slides per pathologist each day. I do all the dermpath here so if the dermpath volume is higher then my count will be higher.

 

[jupiterianvibe]

Would 14 trays a day on average be excessive?

 

[univlad]

Would 14 trays a day on average be excessive?

In private practice, yes.

 

[jupiterianvibe]

In private practice, yes.

is it different in non-private practice?

 

[icpshootyz]

Would 14 trays a day on average be excessive?

Depends. When you say "trays" are we talking completely full 20 slide trays? That would be 280 slides, which could certainly get excessive unless they are all colon polyps or BCC's. 280 slides of breast excisions or other cancer resections is more like 2 days of work. But that's why the term "tray" doesn't mean much to me, we go by slide/block count to divvy things up between us (see above).

 

[Tiki]

Wow, I'm overworked.

 

[PrettyLadyDoc24]

How many trays per day do you sign out?

Is this question for residents or attendings?

 

[LADoc00]

5 on a slow day, 50 on a crazy day. So the variation is literally an order of magnitude.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Doesn't matter so much whether private or academic, the variation can be huge, and (except for the players) does
not reflect what your paycheck looks like.
This kind of variation would never work in patient care fields. They might vary from 20-40 patients per day, but our RVU
leaps can be much bigger.
This issue also plays a big role in our field's over-supply of pathologists.

 

[jupiterianvibe]

Is this question for residents or attendings?

I'm asking for attendings.