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One year's experience with a regional hormone assay service
Annals of Clinical Biochemistry
|September 1, 1977
Summary
Establishing specialised hormone assays regionally proved challenging. Integration into existing labs increased workload locally, not regionally, suggesting centralisation requires a top-down approach for specialized laboratory services.
Area of Science:
- Clinical Biochemistry
- Endocrinology
- Laboratory Medicine
Background:
- Clinical chemists proposed a tiered laboratory system (area, regional, supraregional) for specialized assays in England and Wales.
- A regional center for hormone assays was established at Addenbrooke's Hospital in June 1975.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the feasibility and uptake of a regional specialized hormone assay service.
- To evaluate the integration of endocrine assays into a large service laboratory setting.
Main Methods:
- Established a regional center for hormone assays focusing on pituitary-gonad and pituitary-thyroid axes.
- Integrated specialized endocrine assays into an existing large service laboratory.
- Monitored assay workload and request origins (local vs. regional).
Main Results:
- Assays for pituitary-gonad and pituitary-thyroid axes were introduced within the first year.
- Endocrine assays were integrated into a large service laboratory with minimal additional expenditure.
- Workload of endocrine assays increased significantly, primarily from local requests, not regional ones.
Conclusions:
- Effective centralisation of specialized assays is difficult without a "dictatorial" rationalisation approach at regional and area levels.
- The model of integrating specialized assays into a large service laboratory led to increased local demand rather than regional service utilization.