New Survey Reveals Burnout in Clinical Labs Impacts Patient Care, Staff Safety; Optimism that Automation, AI Will Help Tackle Challenges
- Burnout has some lab professionals worried about making mistakes, ability to do more for patients
- Experts continue to sound the alarm about clinical lab staffing shortages
- Efforts to sustain high-quality testing will rely on automation and AI tools
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240730284940/en/
(Graphic: Business Wire)
"The ability of lab professionals to reliably produce accurate test results under time constraints is foundational to patient care and trust in the healthcare system,” said
Conducted
Nearly two-in-five (39%) laboratory professionals rank limited staff to support laboratory operations as their greatest challenge. Five percent of laboratory professionals reported that their lab had closed temporarily because of understaffing. Closures delay the patient testing that is relied upon to inform 70% of today’s medical decisions.2 Healthcare professionals depend upon precise and timely test results for their effective patient diagnosis, treatment, and management.
Automation and AI tools will help tackle staffing challenges
A majority (83%) of laboratory professionals believe the demand for laboratory services will continue to increase, underscoring the urgency of finding solutions to the ongoing workforce shortage. Although more than half (52%) of laboratory professionals agree that automation threatens their job and one-in-four (27%) cite fear of losing their job among reasons they are reluctant to adopt new technologies, 95% agree that adoption of automated technologies will help them to improve patient care.
Laboratory professionals acknowledge that high- and low-risk errors may be made in the laboratory due to being overworked or burned out. Low-risk errors were categorized as administrative, documentation, or repeat-testing-related errors, while high-risk errors involved biohazard exposure for staff or reporting incorrect test results. Fourteen percent of laboratory professionals personally admit they have made a high-risk error and 22% a low-risk error. However, 24% admit they have never made a high-risk error, but have witnessed high-risk errors made by other staff members. A nearly equal percentage say they have never made a low-risk error but have witnessed low-risk errors (25%). An additional 29% of laboratory professionals say they have never made a low-risk or a high-risk error but worry about making one due to feeling overworked or burned out.
With fewer repetitive, manual tasks to handle, laboratory professionals indicated they would reallocate their saved time to training and mentoring employees (46%), performing more quality control troubleshooting (42%), and more efficiently managing the test sample process across departments (39%). Nearly nine-in-ten (89%) laboratory professionals agree their laboratories need automation to keep up with demand, with 91% agreeing that utilizing AI tools and technology can help address unmet patient care challenges or needs.
Zwickl adds, “Our focus on human-centered engineering addresses the specific needs of each lab and standardizes tasks that safeguard quality and lab safety. Patient care relies on laboratory scientists’ expertise, which must continue to be nurtured through training and mentorship. Automation can eliminate repetitive manual tasks that introduce human error, increase efficiency, and give staff time back to focus on what they want to achieve to improve healthcare.”
Download the survey report here.
1 The research was conducted online in |
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240730284940/en/
Media
+1 610 241-2129; Kimberly.Nissen@siemens-healthineers.com
Source: