Improving Hospital Laboratory Performance: Implications for Healthcare Managers

Laboratory services in healthcare delivery systems play a vital role in inpatient care. Studies have shown that laboratory data affects approximately 65% of the most critical decisions on admission, discharge, and medication. Laboratory testing accounts for approximately 10% of hospital billing. Reducing laboratory costs and improving laboratory performance would contribute to reducing total healthcare cost, which is one of the major goals for the U.S. healthcare delivery system. The objective of this paper is to review and analyze the diverse research approaches applied to improve the performance of hospital laboratories in large healthcare delivery systems. The approaches reviewed include: lean, quality control, automation, and simulation modeling. In the conclusion, future research directions are presented, which include additional methods to be investigated to further improve the performance of hospital laboratories.