CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

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ESSENTIALS OF CLINICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE
of and more educated about control of operational expenses while not sacrificing
quality and quantity.
Several effective means by which individuals and families can help to control
health care costs have been proposed that would not involve sacrificing the
advanced level of health care enjoyed in the U.S. today. Most require that individuals
assume some personal responsibility for controlling and paying the costs
of care. One avenue is the creation of medical savings accounts, encouraged by
federal and state governments through tax credits, that would make individuals
more likely to prudently seek medical care only when necessary. The other major
approach lies in wellness education that begins at an early age. This means of
controlling costs might include nutritional diets that are prepared in schools and
at home to help individuals avoid obesity and hypertension. A healthful lifestyle
that includes regular exercise and proper rest could go a long way toward
controlling health care costs, while retaining the advantages of a country with
one of the best health care systems available. Creativity by leaders and personal
responsibility for one’s health should be the goal of everyone to avoid sacrificing
the health of everyone.
The Laboratory Role
The role of the laboratory is included in the demand for more economical medical
care. Laboratories have made strides toward providing more economical testing by
establishing reference laboratories to do batch tests in large volumes for many laboratories
at a much lower cost than a single laboratory can accomplish with only a
few tests of a given category in a period of time. Mechanization has led to quicker
turnaround times, more efficiency, and less costly testing. Health fairs with screening
tests have led to the discovery of diseases before symptoms appear, leading to
quicker and easier treatment and even cures of diseases that might have become
chronic. Contracts are used to control costs for an established period of time, and
lease-purchase agreements that require buying of a certain volume of supplies and
reagents in return for being allowed to use an expensive piece of equipment for
a time are common today. In-house repair technicians, backup equipment for use
when a major malfunction has occurred, and POCT have all been advanced to do
their respective parts in controlling health care costs.
Introduction to Laboratory Functions
and Basic Equipment
Testing procedures for each of the major departments within the medical laboratory
may number into the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, but most hospitalbased
medical laboratories perform a repertoire of several hundred procedures.
Those procedures not performed on a routine basis and in sufficient numbers are
commonly sent to commercial reference laboratories or, in the case of a hospital
system, laboratories within the system at separate sites that specialize in certain
procedures. This can be economical. For instance, a system with five hospitals
would send all of a certain procedure to Hospital A and Hospital A would send
another set of specialized tests to Hospital C, operating within its own system.
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