Dental & Oral Health

Aim: To increase the turnover of reporting times of oral biopsies.

 

Objectives: 1. Identifying the proportion of oral biopsies that being reported within in the recommended guidelines. 2. Identify the proportion of oral biopsies that are not being reported within the recommended guidelines. 3. Identify the proportion of oral biopsies that are urgent and no urgent.

 

Standards: The Royal College of Pathology

 

Suspected mucosal malignancies - 80% of diagnostic biopsies will be reported within seven calendar days of the biopsy being taken. 80% of all the histopathology specimens (excluding those requiring decalcification) will be reported within 10 calendar days of the specimen being taken.

 

Non-urgent mucosal malignancies - Histopathology cases reported, confirmed and authorized within 7-10 calendar days of the procedure. Standard 80% of cases must be reported within seven calendar days and 90% within 10 calendar days. Methodology: Data was collected both retrospectively from 369 patients by liaising with the Pathology Department, at Queens Medical Centre, from patients who had intra-oral biopsies taken under both local and general anesthetic.

Results:  Cycle 1 The results show that only 18% of oral biopsies were reported within the recommended guidelines.

 

Implement change: This issue was raised at a departmental study day, and the concerns were addressed from all members of the team. The departmental consultants for maxillofacial and restorative had liased with pathology consultant regarding the results. It was established that the pathology department was experiencing a significant backlog and therefore it was proven difficult to ensure that all departmental biopsy results were returned within the recommended guidelines.