Pathologists' assistants practice - A measurement of performance

Despite their widespread utilization, little is known about the quality of pathologists' assistants' services. Pathologists' assistants' performance w as compared with pathology residents' performance using the metrics of lymp h node retrieval and tissue resubmission rates. Lymph node retrieval was ca lculated by retrospective review of surgical pathology reports from a sampl e of axillary dissection, mastectomy, and colorectal specimens. Tissue resu bmission rates were calculated by retrospective review of a sample of gener al surgical pathology reports. Pathologists' assistants retrieved a signifi cantly greater total number of lymph nodes compared with pathology resident s; however, there was no difference in the total number of positive lymph n odes retrieved. Cases for which pathologists' assistants performed the gros s examination had a significantly decreased resubmission rate compared with those performed by residents. In this setting, the gross examination perfo rmance of pathologists' assistants was equivalent to or superior to that of pathology residents. These results provide the first information available relating to pathologists' assistants' performance in surgical pathology.