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Egyptian Board Clinical Pathology study materials
Egyptian Board Clinical Pathology study resources

Egyptian Board Clinical Pathology: Laboratory Management

Egyptian Board Clinical Pathology · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Laboratory Management

Management questions test the practical arithmetic and documentation of running a laboratory: workload, staffing, cost, inventory, procurement, information systems, and how a decision is implemented and then monitored.

Core rules

  • Workload is counted in reportable tests, not accessions; a panel of eight analytes on one sample is eight reportable tests for capacity planning.
  • Cost per reportable test = (reagents + consumables + calibrators + QC material + labour + overhead + equipment depreciation) ÷ reportable tests, adjusted for wastage and repeats.
  • Fixed costs do not change with volume (rent, depreciation, salaried staff); variable costs do (reagents, consumables). This distinction drives pricing and shift decisions.
  • Representative KPIs: turnaround time (median and 90th percentile), sample rejection rate, QC failure rate, amended report rate, EQA performance, cost per test, competency completion.
  • Stock control uses minimum and maximum levels; reorder point = (average daily use × lead time) + safety stock, with first-in-first-out and expiry rotation.
  • Procurement follows documented specification, evaluation, contract award and performance review; single-source purchase needs written justification.
  • Any change (new analyser, new method) needs a plan with responsibilities, timeline, training, validation, communication and a post-implementation audit.

Worked example

A laboratory performs 12,000 reportable tests monthly. Costs are: reagents and consumables 60,000; QC and calibrators 6,000; labour 30,000; overhead and depreciation 24,000. Total 120,000, so cost per reportable test is 10 currency units. If volume falls to 8,000 while fixed costs stay the same, cost per test rises to about 15. This is why a cheaper reagent is not automatically cheaper per result once calibration, repeats and fixed overhead are counted.

Traps

  • Quoting reagent cost as the cost per test.
  • Ignoring repeat testing and calibration consumption in stock planning.
  • Setting reorder points from memory instead of lead-time data.
  • Announcing a change without training, validation or an effectiveness review.