LABORATORY MANAGEMENT


the manual slide workflow. They are not hypothetical. They are measured.


The workforce equation The laboratory workforce shortage is not a temporary phenomenon. A systematic review of the global pathology workforce concluded that the field faces a structural deficit that will deepen over the coming decade, driven by retirement demographics, inadequate training pipeline capacity, and increasing diagnostic complexity per case.2


This


creates a compounding problem for laboratory managers: the same workflow that currently requires 2.3 FTE in logistics overhead will require those same 2.3 FTE from a shrinking pool of recruitable staff. In a 2023 paper, Schwen et al.


As well as reductions in turnaround times, one survey saw 91% of pathologists agree that digital pathology made their practice more satisfying and efficient.


Each event requires staff time. Each event is a potential source of error. And each event is essentially invisible in a budget that records slides processed per day rather than staff minutes consumed per slide.


A published time and motion


analysis showed that digital pathology implementation saved an overall 13.4% of the pathologist’s workday, over 43 minutes per day, through automation of case assembly, queries, requests, retrieval, and delivery.3


That figure reflects pathologist


time alone. The time savings for laboratory scientist and administrative staff from eliminating manual slide logistics are substantially larger.


Improving efficiency and productivity at scale One study reported five minutes per case saved in laboratory logistics through


Cost category Slide file staff


Physical slide retrieval Transport and courier costs Case assembly time Storage and vendor costs Rework from misidentification


digital workflows: three minutes from digital handling and transmission, and one and a half minutes from preparation for multidisciplinary meetings. Across a high-volume laboratory, this translates to 2.3 fewer FTE in laboratory logistics roles.4 That five-minute-per-case figure


may appear modest in isolation. In a laboratory processing 400 cases per day, it represents over 33 staff-hours per day, or approximately 2.3 FTE positions running continuously at full capacity. Not absorbed by a single overtime roster. Not compensated through informal effort. Simply the irreducible overhead of moving physical objects through a physical workflow that can be eliminated by moving data instead.4 Table 1 shows the six categories of hidden workflow cost. Published operational analyses consistently identify the same categories of avoidable cost in


Operational impact


Full-time personnel for retrieval, filing, dispatch. One published implementation found three fewer FTE needed after digitisation.


Glass slide archival requests fell 93-97% after digital implementation at one major cancer centre.3


Batch dispatch to remote sites, courier fees, and time delays. One study reported reduction from 86 hours to 35 minutes for teleconsultation turnaround.


Manual sorting, batching, and assembly for sign-out and MDT. Three minutes per case in laboratory logistics is the published benchmark.4


Off-site storage vendor fees, physical real estate for slide archives, slide degradation risk over time.


Barcode errors, mislabelling, and slide mix-ups. One study reported accessioning error reduction from 6.3% to 0.5% on switching to digital workflow.4


Table 1. The six categories of hidden workflow cost. 24 WWW.PATHOLOGYINPRACTICE.COM September 2026


reviewed lessons learned from laboratory digitisation, highlighting a dimension that budget analyses often miss; digital workflows are not only a cost-efficiency opportunity, they are a staff retention and recruitment tool.4 Laboratory technology infrastructure is increasingly a factor in staff atraction and satisfaction, particularly for younger histotechnologists entering a job market where they can choose which employer offers the more modern working environment. A laboratory that requires 2.3 FTE of staff to perform work that a digital workflow automates is not only inefficient, it is at a competitive disadvantage in the recruitment market. The 91% of pathologists who, in one


survey, reported that digital pathology reduced turnaround times also reflected that it made their practice more satisfying and efficient.5


The staff satisfaction


dimension of workflow change does not appear in return on investment (ROI) calculations, but it is consequential for managers trying to retain experienced staff in a constrained talent market.


What digitisation eliminates


Slide library FTE replaced by digital retrieval – instant, from any workstation.


Prior comparison slides immediately available in LIS without staff retrieval.


Digital transmission eliminates all physical transport costs and delays.


Automated digital case assembly from LIS; no physical sort or delivery required.


Projected $267K/yr savings at one institution from storage and personnel costs alone.3


Automated barcoded digital workflows eliminate manual identification steps.


AdobeStock / Jestercine


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