In 2004, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center created a new and more rigorous procedure for collection, including checklists for gynecologists. The result was fewer errors.
In the same vein, for examples, patients with thyroid nodules, 300,00 fine needle aspirations, a procedure in which a doctor place a tiny needle into a growth to extract cells, have them performed every year nationwide to rule out cancer.
Detroit’s Henry Ford Health System produced quality measures used by the College of American Pathologists to certify labs. Its administrators say that, in 1993, 525 laboratory in one study completed 79 percent of biopsies in a day but that record hasn’t improved substantially since.