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- UAB School of Medicine
Case Study
UAB School of Medicine decreased their rejection rate by 75% and now has an average return rate of 80%.
Our team determined BioTouch would be able to meet our unique needs and help us continue to provide our patients and dialysis units the high level of service to which they are accustomed.
Company
Profile
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Number of Students
800
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Number of Residents
1,000
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Academic Departments
27
Client Overview & Industry
UAB is the heartbeat of Birmingham and an integral medical leader in the Southeast. The Birmingham campus is within walking distance of some of the best parks, entertainment, and dining in the region.
Our regional campuses—in Huntsville, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa—expand our academic reach and responsibilities in addition to educating physicians in rural and underserved areas of the state.
We are the home of The Kirklin Clinic, a multi-disciplinary medical home; University Hospital, one of the largest academic hospitals in the country; and our faculty serve the Children's of Alabama hospital.
Client Challenge
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Determine a more efficient and cost-effective method for ensuring that monthly antibody testing is being done on all candidates on the wait list for deceased donor kidney, kidney/pancreas, and pancreas transplants.
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The project team decided to look specifically at how specimen integrity and sample return rate would be affected by the implementation of the processes used by BioTouch. The baseline specimen integrity analysis indicated a current rejection rate of 19% (338 total specimens rejected out of 1780 total specimens received).
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One of the target goals established was to decrease the number of samples rejected by 75%, from 19% to 5% or less. The second target goal identified was to increase the current sample return rate from an average of 50% (1780 samples received out of 3500 kits sent) to a target of 80% or higher.
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This data would be collected by team members on a monthly basis by monitoring both the BioTouch dashboard and the HLA lab’s sample registry.
Solution & Outcome
Throughout the course of this process improvement, we implemented rapid change cycles as needed. As we monitored specimen integrity (i.e., samples with no date, samples with no requisition, hemolyzed samples, and those with only one identifier) changes were made to the request form three times to assist with specimen integrity and return rate. As of July 2014, we reached our goal of decreasing the rejection rate by 75%. We are meeting our original target of 5% or less rejection rate. Before BioTouch was implemented, we had an average return rate of approximately 50%. Our average return rate is now approximately 80%. We will continue to track sample rejections and return rates on a monthly basis and improve our process as necessary.