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Medical laboratory
A medical laboratory or clinical laboratory is a laboratory where tests are done on clinical specimens in order to get information about the health of a patient as pertaining to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.
Laboratory medicine is generally divided into two sections, each of which being subdivided into multiple units. These two sections are anatomic pathology and clinical pathology.
Distribution of clinical laboratories in health institutions varies greatly from one place to another.
The staff of medical laboratories may include:
- Pathologist
- Clinical biochemist
- Pathologist’s assistant (PA)
- Medical laboratory scientist (MT, MLS or CLS)
- Medical laboratory technician (MLT)
- Medical laboratory assistant (MLA)
- Phlebotomist (PBT)
In many countries, there are two main types of labs that process the majority of medical specimens. Hospital laboratories are attached to a hospital, and perform tests on patients. Private (or community) laboratories receive samples from general practitioners, insurance companies, clinical research sites and other health clinics for analysis.
These can also be called reference laboratories where more unusual and obscure tests are performed. These include Mayo Medical Laboratories, ARUP Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp. For extremely specialized tests, samples may go to a research laboratory. Many samples are sent between different labs for uncommon tests. It is more cost effective if a particular laboratory specializes in a rare test, receiving specimens (and money) from other labs, while sending away tests it cannot perform.
Laboratories today are held together by a system of software programs and computers that exchange data about patients, test requests, and test results known as a laboratory information system or LIS. The LIS is interfaced with the hospital information system.
This system enables hospitals and labs to order the correct test requests for each patient, keep track of individual patient or specimen histories, and help guarantee a better quality of results as well as printing hard copies of the results for patient charts and doctors to check.
Credibility of medical laboratories is paramount to the health and safety of the patients relying on the testing services provided by these labs. The international standard in use today for the accreditation of medical laboratories is ISO 15189. In the United States, under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), accreditation of medical laboratories is done by the Joint Commission, College of American Pathologists, AAB (American Association of Bioanalysts), and other state and federal agencies. CLIA 88 or the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments also dictate testing and personnel.
Pathology Consolidation Underway in Washington
CEO SUMMARY: Two regional pathology super-practices have emerged in Washington State. In each case, acquisitions and mergers are fueling the growth of the two large pathology groups. In Western Washington and the Seattle metro, CellNetix is the dominant pathology group, with 53 physicians…
May 19, 2014 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
How about a hospital that doesn’t have a medical laboratory but issues lab test reports to patients? This unusual development happened in India recently. The Free Press Journal of Mumbai, India, reported earlier this month that government health officials had conducted a surprise inspectio…
CMS Gives Deemed Status to A2LA under CLIA Law
CEO SUMMARY: Quietly published in the March 25 issue of the Federal Register was a notice that CMS had granted deeming authority for CLIA to the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA). This action gives laboratories in the United States a new choice to meet the accredita…
New ISO 15189 Book Published to Help Clinical Lab Managers
THERE IS NOW A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE for lab executives and lab managers interested in learning more about ISO 15189:2012, the latest version of the quality management system (QMS) for medical laboratories. It is a book titled: “A Practical Guide to ISO 15189 in Laboratory Medicine” and was publis…
Caris Life Sciences Achieves Accreditation to ISO 15189
IN DECIDING TO PURSUE ACCREDITATION TO ISO 15189: Medical Laboratories, Caris Life Sciences considered the international benefits of this designation. It was December when Caris Life Sciences of Irving, Texas, announced that it had earned accreditation to ISO 15189 from the …
Across the Pond, Lots of Changes in Lab Testing
IN BOTH THE UNITED KINGDOM AND EUROPE, plenty of change is unfolding in clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology testing. Our intrepid Editor-in-Chief, Robert L. Michel, spent last week in England attending our annual Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine conference, now in its eleventh year. …
Quality Assurance Regs to Tighten for UK Labs
CEO SUMMARY: In the United Kingdom, a window of opportunity has opened for improving the quality assurance activities of pathology and histopathology laboratories. Last week, at the Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine conference, the newly-published “Pathology Quality Assurance Review” w…
Broward Health’s Lab Pursues Multiple Ways to Cut Lab Costs
CEO SUMMARY: Tasked with cutting $2 million from their lab’s annual operating budget, the lab team at Broward Health System instituted changes that included a lab test formulary and ordering algorithms. In collaboration with physicians, these changes reduced the use of outmoded tests wh…
MedLab CEO Discusses Changes in Lab Market
CEO SUMMARY: Two factors combined to cause executives at Laboratory Partners and its MedLab business division to file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition on October 25. One was the sustained and continuing cuts to lab test reimbursement. The other was the reluctance of Wall Street investors …
Medicare Price Cuts Drive Labs to Sell or File BK
CEO SUMMARY: Professional investors are smart with their money. Thus, it is no surprise that clinical lab and pathology companies owned by private equity firms are the first to be sold or closed. These investors are acting in response to the cumulative negative financial impact of recent …
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