2026-01-28

Describing night-shift backlog without blaming the night crew

Night benches in emergency-adjacent laboratories receive trauma panels in clusters. A four-hour average TAT can look acceptable while a 02:15 cluster sat forty minutes because both centrifuges were already loaded.

When we write TAT packs we split the night into windows that match ambulance peaks, not calendar hours chosen for neat tables. Supervisors can then ask whether a second rotor is justified, instead of asking why the night crew is slow.

Mild reservation belongs in the pack: if staffing is already at the hospital minimum, the report should say so. Delay language that only names people will not survive the next union conversation.