PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Paul L Epner
AU  - Julie Gayken
AU  - Anthony Kurec
TI  - In Support of Quality and Safe Patient Care: Defining the Value of Laboratory Medicine
AID  - 10.29074/ascls.118.001370
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science
PG  - ascls.118.001370
4099  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/early/2019/03/06/ascls.118.001370.short
4100  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/early/2019/03/06/ascls.118.001370.full
AB  - The Coordinating Council on the Clinical Laboratory Workforce (CCCLW) initiated a task force charged with describing the value of clinical laboratory medicine toward the overarching needs of achieving quality patient care and improving patient outcomes. In part, a survey was conducted to discover what clinical laboratories do or should do to achieve these goals. A total of 469 respondents representing various sized and types of facilities, as well as various clinical positions participated. It confirmed that the topic was impacting about two-thirds of respondents who reported pressure from senior leadership to actively show the value of the laboratory. Interestingly, a slightly higher number (69%) indicated they felt constant pressure to cut costs. Open-ended questions were utilized to determine approaches to demonstrating value and responses fell in six categories. Questions also sought approaches to measuring value with responses largely falling within five categories primarily composed of structural and process measures.