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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.
MT/MLT Distance Learning Goal of Collaboration
CEO SUMMARY: To encourage more students to pursue medical technology (MT) and medical laboratory technician (MLT) degrees, ARUP Laboratories and Weber State University (WSU) are collaborating to promote the distance learning programs offered at WSU. Online students can work any shift and …
ISO 15189 Work Advances at Meeting in Vancouver
CEO SUMMARY: Laboring quietly out of the public eye, an international work team of professionals, including representatives from the CDC, the FDA, and global in vitro diagnostics (IVD) manufacturers, has spent the past 14 years developing an important series of quality and safety standard…
ISO 15189 Accreditation Program Offered by CAP
CEO SUMMARY: Two strong trends in laboratory management can be seen in the College of American Pathologists’ (CAP) move to offer accreditation to ISO 15189:2007. The first trend is the movement toward quality management systems such as Lean and Six Sigma. The second trend is the global …
Hospitals Saw Several Benefits In Forming Laboratory Joint Venture
CEO SUMMARY: For the past eight years, growing numbers of hospitals and health systems have launched laboratory outreach programs. Hospital CEOs are recognizing that laboratory outreach programs generate worthwhile operational gains, along with steadily-increasing revenues. However, labor…
ISO 15189 Gains Favor For Lab Accreditation
CEO SUMMARY: Volunteers for the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) are in the midst of an 18-month project to help five …
Shiel Medical Lab Grows In Tough NYC Market
CEO SUMMARY: There’s a new lab player emerging in the New York metropolitan market. Shiel Medical Laboratory of Brooklyn, New York, is growing steadily and now reports $50 million in annual revenue. It is taking full advantage of the managed care contracting turmoil and adding new clien…
Unprecedented Activity Across Lab Medicine
CEO SUMMARY: Laboratory medicine is now considered one of the best opportunities to profit as the demand for healthcare services skyrockets, both in the United States and throughout the world. This is why a flood of investment capital is washing into the laboratory industry. Loaded with c…
Key Trends Drive Change for Clinical Laboratories
CEO SUMMARY: Technology plays an ever-growing role in reshaping the organization and operation of clinical laboratories. New technologies figure prominently in THE DARK REPORT’S 2007 list of key trends in the clinical laboratory industry. Technological advances in instr…
There is Steady Convergence In Lab Operations Worldwide
IS THERE AN ACCELERATING CONVERGENCE OF LABORATORY OPERATIONS by major clinical laboratories throughout the world? In recent weeks, THE DARK REPORT has seen tantalizing evidence that the answer to this question should be “yes.” This trend has strategic implications for independent commercial lab…
Acute Histotech Shortage Grows Across the USA
CEO SUMMARY: Pathology laboratories are enjoying steady increases in specimen volume and revenue as new molecular assays gain acceptance by clinicians. However, the supply of histotechnologists is failing to keep pace with growth in the volume of tissue-based testing. One executive who pl…
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Volume XXXII, No. 7 – May 12, 2025
Economic, Tech changes drive lab concerns, The Dark Report provides insights from the Executive War College speakers about how clinical labs can use business strategies and tactics to handle the new tariffs, future regulations, and artificial intelligence (AI). Also, this issue provides guidance on how labs and pathologists should prepare for payer audits.
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