The virtual laboratory: regional clinical diagnostics for integrated delivery systems

With the rise of integrated delivery systems (IDSs), hospital laboratories need to transform themselves to better serve these large regional systems. Four factors are driving this need for transformation: the decline in the customer base of hospital clinical laboratories, the expanding number of test options, the need to control costs, and the proliferation of new technologies. In the future, clinical diagnostic capabilities will be available via integrated regional laboratory systems, or "virtual laboratories". The virtual laboratories serving IDSs will consist of a control center to manage laboratory services across the system, a core laboratory to perform large-volume testing and all testing that does not require a rapid turnaround, satellite laboratories for quick-turnaround testing, and a range of point-of-care testing options. Developing these virtual laboratories will pose challenges, including a redeployment of resources and a reengineering of testing policies and procedures. Success in implementing a virtual laboratory also will depend on the development of effective information systems technology to link the laboratory's components.