Table 2 Strategies to improve autopsy rate
From: Clinical review: What is the role for autopsy in the ICU?
Efforts by the pathological department |
   Coordinate autopsies with the schedules of requesting physicians |
   Faster processing of the autopsy reports |
   Provision of resources for performing autopsies |
   Creation of regional autopsy centres |
Provides opportunities to improve autopsy quality |
Develops strategies for using autopsy results to improve clinical performance |
Improvement of training for pathology residents |
Better education of medical students |
   Quality control of performed autopsies (different pathologists interpreting the same autopsy specimens) in order to improve diagnostic value |
   Provide opportunities to improve autopsy quality by specialization |
Efforts by physicians |
   Allow physicians complete discretion in requesting autopsies (arbitrary sampling as a result will augment the numbers of important misdiagnoses) |
   Analyse data from regional centres to identify patterns of missed diagnoses and to generate prediction rules that would enhance the process of case selection |
   Augment autopsy numbers with widespread use of structured death reviews and structured reports of epidemiological statistics on various diseases encountered in the ICU |
   Communicate the conclusion of the autopsy report to the relatives |
Efforts by both departments |
   Clinicopathological conferences on a monthly basis attended by the treating intensivist, the radiologist and the pathologist |
   Interesting cases should be published with the aim of education and improving knowledge of epidemiology |