A 'medical laboratory' or 'clinical laboratory' is a
laboratory where tests are done on biological specimens in order to get information about the
health of a
patient.
Departments
The laboratory is often divided into a number of disciplines:
★
Microbiology receive swabs,
feces,
urine,
blood,
sputum, medical equipment, as well as possible infected tissue. They culture this to check for any
pathogenic
microbes.
★
Parasitology investigates parasites.
★
Hematology receive whole blood and citrated
plasma. They do
full blood counts, and
blood films.
★
Coagulation analyzed clotting times and coagulation factors.
★
Biochemistry usually receive
serum. They test the serum for different components.
★
Toxicology tests for pharmaceutical drugs, drugs of abuse or recreational use, and other toxins.
★
Immunology test for
antibodies.
★
Serology receive serum samples to look for evidence of diseases such as
hepatitis or
HIV.
★
Urinalysis tests urine for many analytes
★
Histology process solid tissue removed from the body to make slides and examine cellular detail.
★
Cytology examine smears of cells (such as from the
cervix) for evidence of cancer and other conditions.
★
Cytogenetics involves using blood and other cells to get a
karyotype. This can be helpful in prenatal diagnosis (e.g.
Down's syndrome) as well as in cancer (some cancers have abnormal
chromosomes).
★
Virology and DNA analysis are also done in large medical laboratories.
★
Surgical pathology examines organs, limbs, tumors, fetuses, and other tissues biopsied in surgery such as breast masectomys.
Medical laboratory staff
The following is the hierarchy of the clinical laboratory staff from highest authority to lowest:
pathologist, pathologist assistant, laboratory manager, department supervisor, chief technologist (lead technologist), cytotechnologist,
medical technologist, histotechnologist, medical
laboratory technician,
medical laboratory assistant (lab aide),
phlebotomist, transcriptionist, and specimen processor (secretary).
Types of laboratory
In many countries, there are two main types of labs that process the majority of medical specimens. 'Hospital laboratories' are attached to a
hospital, and perform tests on these patients. 'Private' (or 'community') 'laboratories' receive samples from
general practitioners, insurance companies, and other health clinics for analysis.
For extremely specialised tests, samples may go to an environmental science or research laboratory.
A lot of samples are sent between different labs for uncommon tests. It is more cost effective if a particular laboratory specialises in a rare test, receiving specimens (and money) from other labs, while sending away tests it cannot do.
Specimen processing
Sample processing will usually start with a set of samples and a request form.
Typically a set of
vacutainer tubes containing blood, or any other specimen will arrive to the laboratory in a small plastic bag, along with the form.
The form and the specimens are given a laboratory number. The specimens will usually all receive the same number, often as a sticker that can be placed on the tubes and form.
Entry of requests onto a laboratory management system involves typing, or scanning (where barcodes are used) in the laboratory number, and entering the patient identification, as well as any tests requested. This allows laboratory machines, computers and staff to know what tests are pending, and also gives a place (such as a hospital department, doctor or other customer) for results to go.
For biochemistry samples, blood is usually centrifuged and serum is separated. If the serum needs to go on more than one machine, it can be divided into separate tubes.
Many specimens end up in one or more sophisticated
automated analyser, that process a fraction of the sample and return one or more "results".
Laboratory informatics
Laboratories today are held together by a system of software programs and computers that exchange data about patients, test requests, and test results known as a
Laboratory information system or LIS. The LIS is interfaced with the
hospital information system.
This system enables hospitals and labs to order the correct test requests for each patient, keep track of individual patient or specimen histories, and help guarantee a better quality of results as well as printing hard copies of the results for patient charts and doctors to check.
Analysis Results
The pathology results must be verified and sometimes explained to a
physician by a
clinical pathologist. The majority of the time it's a medical technologist explaining it to a registered nurse.
Scandal in the clinical lab industry - SmithKline Beecham
As medical technology advanced doctors were able to get more and more tests done in shorter and shorter amounts of time. Where in the past a doctor might order a potassium and glucose and it would take hours for the results, now a doctor can order a full chemistry panel of 20 or more different analytes and get the results in under an hour. The results are also much more accurate and reliable now than in the past. Thus, into the 1970's and 1980's the lab became a source of profit within the hospital structure. Many lab corporations began taking illegal and nefarious actions to increase their income. These practices included medicare and medicaid fraud by performing and billing for tests that the ordering physician never ordered, paying kickbacks to private doctor offices for sending their specimens to these reference labs, and other complicated criminal activity. These kickbacks included
donuts, free computers, fax machines, and more. These events culminated mostly in the 1980's with the SmithKline Beecham (now
GlaxoSmithKline) Clinical Laboratory (SBCL) scandal.
[1] It is believed SBCL paid at least $325 million in penalties and the industry as a whole paid over $1 billion to insurance and government agencies that were defrauded. Ever since this time, the lab has become a source of expense and loss in the hospital budget and lab medicine's reputation was given a black eye. Now many labs have a compliance officer with mandatory annual meetings about compliance for all employees.
Medical laboratory accreditation
Credibility of medical laboratories is paramount to the health and safety of the patients relying on the testing services provided by these labs. The international standard in use today for the accreditation of medical laboratories is
ISO 15189 - Medical laboratories - particular requirements for quality and competence.
See also
Notes
1. LabScam retrieved on August 26, 2007
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