Value of Clinical Laboratory Services in Health Care

ASCLS Position Paper

doi:10.29074/ascls.26.1.8

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ASCLS Position Paper

Extract

Introduction Clinical laboratory professionals and the services they provide contribute to maximizing the effective delivery of care in today's complex healthcare system. Appropriate utilization of clinical laboratory services enhances the ability of clinicians to make evidence-based diagnostic and therapeutic decisions for their patients using the optimal level of resources and minimizing overall healthcare expenditures. Clinical laboratory services are the most cost effective, least invasive source of objective health information in disease prevention and diagnosis, improving patient outcomes, assuring patient safety, and fulfilling essential public health surveillance functions. Thus, clinical laboratory professionals and the services they provide are essential in providing care that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable.

Background Within the United States, laboratories are certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) under the CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) program. The hundreds of thousands of certified laboratories registered under CLIA are responsible for performing billions of laboratory tests annually. As the healthcare delivery system continues to evolve and more individuals seek healthcare, the role of clinical laboratory services will become increasingly more vital. Clinical laboratory testing will continue to be a significant component of the healthcare market, due to factors such as the continued improvements in technology, the development of new tests which are more specific to certain diseases, an aging patient population, and expanded consumer access to healthcare. As a result, clinical laboratory information will continue to have a major impact on evidence-based, decision-making strategies utilized in healthcare and public health.

Rationale Impacting diagnosis,…