The clinical laboratory is an indispensable component of a well-functioning healthcare system or hospital. Laboratories truly provide the keys to prevention, diagnosis and management of health and disease.
Unfortunately, many successful laboratories struggle to identify and communicate the myriad ways in which they add value to the hospital system. Consequently, the laboratory workforce often goes unrecognized, and labs may find it difficult to differentiate themselves in a crowded field of service providers.
By fully understanding and articulating the value of your laboratory, you can:
- Build a stronger, more united laboratory team
- Elevate the laboratory’s profile within the larger hospital system
- Effectively communicate the laboratory’s value and priorities to hospital leadership
- Garner respect within the pathology and laboratory community
- Effectively expand your lab’s outreach services
- Increase public and patient awareness of the medical laboratory’s vital role in health care
1. Value to the Health System
2. Value to Operations
3. Value to Patients
1. Value to the Health System
When assessing your laboratory’s value to the health system, don’t forget to include:
- Revenue
- Costs
- Outreach visits
- Patient draws
- Margins
- Supporting other hospital designations
2. Value to Operations
3. Value to the Patient
Finally, labs obviously and undeniably provide value to the patient community. It is not uncommon, for example, for physicians to require a lab result before they are able to make a crucial treatment decision.
Success of laboratory practices and procedures can be measured by:
- Percentage of EMR based on lab results
- Percentage of clinical decisions based on lab tests
- Number of units transfused
- Number of outreach visits
- Reducing patient LOS
- Improving quality-of-life outcomes
Recognizing Additional Ways the Lab Adds Value
The laboratory team often provides baseline and subsequent regularly scheduled testing as part of the hospital’s wellness program.Â
Leverage Your Value, Become a Leading Laboratory
The Leading Laboratory program is built around four foundational pillars:
- Promoting laboratory visibility
- Elevating quality outcomes
- Supporting professional development
- Cultivating trusted leadership
Next Steps: Build a Strategic Plan
You’ve identified and articulated your lab’s value. Now what?
Consider developing a strategic plan and associated goals! Are there areas in which you can increase your laboratory’s value to the health system, operations and patient community?
Your lab’s strategic plan:
- Serves as a roadmap
- Defines the direction in which your lab will grow
- Solidifies tangible goals
- Defines priorities — what we do and what we won’t do
- Guides day-to-day decisions — where we invest resources of time, people and money
- Includes a framework for evaluating progress
- Allows labs to pivot if a specific approach is not working