SURGICAL PATHOLOGY SUPPORT LABS
Surgical pathology is the study of tissues removed from patients during surgery
to assist in the diagnoses of a disease and to assist in the treatment plan
for patients—for example, to distinguish between benign (non-cancerous) and
malignant (cancerous) cells, to detect early genetic changes that may lead
to cancer, and to identify infectious cells in body tissues. The Surgical
Pathology Laboratory here at Yale receives on a daily basis all biopsy and
surgical resection specimens from the Yale–New Haven Hospital operating rooms
and from our Outreach clients.
Surgical Pathology Laboratory Management Team
Quality management in the Surgical Pathology Laboratory is the most important
aspect of our operations because it focuses our daily activities on assuring
patient safety in the laboratory testing process. Andrea J. Viray, Clinical
Operations Manager, is directly responsible for building and directing the management
team of Surgical Pathology. Our department’s abilities are dependent on effective
management and clear decision-making. Highly trained technical staff, using
the most advanced instrumentation and following very specific operating procedures,
handle each patient case submitted to the Surgical Pathology Laboratory. Our
commitment to and compliance with all quality management guidelines assures
our clinicians and patients that they are receiving the highest quality patient
care for their testing event. The Surgical Pathology Laboratory management team
works together at each phase of laboratory testing to produce high quality microscope
slides for patient diagnoses.
Surgical Pathology Operations
Gross Room Team
Lori Patruno, Pathologists’ Assistant and Gross Room Manager, is responsible
for the initial phases of surgical pathology processing. Lori and two additional
pathologists’ assistants, perform the highly
skilled, detail-oriented manual techniques required for initial pathologic examination
and submission of tissue for histologic examination. The case intake staff support
the pathologists’ assistants by accurately performing specimen receipt and accessioning
all patient testing data into our laboratory information system.
Histology Team
George Sherrod, Histology Manger, is responsible for the transformation of tissue
into high quality microscope slides for our pathologists. The many steps and
procedures involved are very well defined processes, involving intricate manual
and semi-automated techniques.
Report Generation and Transcription Unit
Debra Wycoff manages the report
generation and transcription unit during daily operating hours. Phyllis
Eldridge manages the unit during the evening operating hours. This unit
processes pathology reports for our pathologists. The reporting process
must accurately include all the necessary clinical, microscopic, and diagnostic
information reported by our highly specialized pathologists. The report
generation unit also readily triages all incoming phone calls regarding
patient reports, as well as carefully filing and storing microscope slides
in our permanent archives.