ASCP’s National Pathology Quality Registry Ensures Patient Safety Through Education

In this era of value-based health care, providers and medical laboratories are expected to deliver a high level of complex care while minimizing costs. ASCP’s National Pathology Quality Registry (NPQR) helps participating healthcare systems move toward high value, quality care by providing the opportunity to benchmark with similar practices nationwide.

The data that the NPQR gathers from participating laboratories and pathology practices is used to evaluate how current systems are working at each site and to implement improvement initiatives. ASCP will provide educational content focused on quality improvement (QI) and implementation science to participating health systems.

For example, the Society took the tools recommended in the ABIM Foundation’s Choosing Wisely campaign and converted them into quality measures that can be used to determine performance level. This links educational material with data that participants can use on their end to improve performance.

When the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha joined the NPQR pilot program two years ago, its administrators were particularly interested to learn whether its staff system-wide were adhering to the Choosing Wisely recommendations.

“The dashboard available through the NPQR program makes it easier to follow the Choosing Wisely recommendations and to see personalized performance and test stewardship patterns within our healthcare system,” said Scott A. Koepsell, MD, PhD, FASCP, Laboratory Medical Director of Clinical Laboratories and Decentralized Testing, and Co-Chair of UNMC’s Test Utilization Committee.

In the near future, the NPQR’s expanding database will connect participating healthcare systems with education to support their quality improvement efforts. “The data captured in the NPQR gives us another tool to see how we’re doing, both within the system as well as to benchmark with our peers,” says ASCP Past President James L. Wisecarver, MD, PhD, FASCP, Professor Emeritus of Pathology, Vice Chair of Clinical Operations and Medical Director of the Clinical Laboratory in the College of Medicine at UNMC.

ASCP is linking its wealth of educational materials to the NPQR so participants can utilize just-in-time learning or other pertinent education modalities to enhance patient safety and continuous quality improvement. Current ASCP education resources include the University of Pathology Informatics, Lab Management University, Leadership Institute and other curricula to equip laboratory leaders with the knowledge they need to implement change and inspire those they work with to enhance pathologists’ and laboratory professionals’ effectiveness in the lab. To learn more about ASCP’s NPQR click here.