Dec 26, 2012 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratories may see a reduction in the early-morning crowds of fasting patients who have come in for cholesterol testing
For the clinical laboratory testing industry, a new Canadian study suggesting that people may not need to fast before getting a cholesterol test could prove a boon for staffing and operations at patient service centers. That’s because fasting-patients crowd phlebotomy centers in the early morning hours to get their blood drawn so they can eat breakfast.
It is standard practice to require patients to fast before drawing blood specimens for a cholesterol test. However, based on a study involving 200,000 people, findings led researchers to conclude that a non-fasting lipid test would be a reasonable alternative for most people. (more…)
May 4, 2012 | Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Clinical laboratories will increasingly provide emergency diagnostic services through mobile-unit near-patient testing
In an innovation designed to bring the laboratory to the patient, use of a mobile stroke unit (MSU) shortened the time to treatment decision for acute stroke patients. MSUs equipped with imaging systems and medical laboratory point-of-care testing proved capable of providing early diagnosis and intervention.
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will immediately recognize the implications of these findings. This study demonstrates how clinicians are taking steps to move clinical laboratory testing out of the traditional central/core laboratory and bring it closer to the patient specifically to reduce the time-to-answer for certain medical conditions, like acute stroke.
One conclusion from this clinical study is that use of a mobile stroke unit offers a potential solution to the medical problem of stroke patients arriving at the hospital too late for treatment, wrote researchers in a study published in the medical journal The Lancet.
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