A real-world evidence-based approach to laboratory reorganization using e-Valuate benchmarking data
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Fabio Bonini
Abstract
Background:
Pressure to cut health-care costs has involved clinical laboratories underpinning the need to reduce cost per test through programs designed to consolidate activities and increase volumes. Currently, however, there is little evidence of the effectiveness of these measures. The aim of the present study was to verify whether a rational, evidence-based decision-making process might be achieved based on an activity-based cost analysis performed by collecting the data of all variables affecting cost per test.
Methods:
An activity-based costing analysis was performed using a program that provides collected data on performance indicators, benchmark between different laboratories based on performance indicators, and information on reorganization initiatives.
Results:
The data provided were used in two different settings to (1) verify the results of the internal re-organization of specific protein assay and (2) simulate some scenarios for the reorganization of autoimmune testing in the network of clinical laboratories in a large territory.
Conclusions:
The data produced by the e-Valuate project enabled the quantification of variation in costs, the utilization of human and technological resources and efficiency, both as final result of a reorganization project (proteins) and as a simulation of a possible future organization (autoimmune tests).
Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
Research funding: None declared.
Employment or leadership: None declared.
Honorarium: None declared.
Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.
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©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorials
- Targeting errors in microbiology: the case of the Gram stain
- Time for a holistic approach and standardization education in laboratory medicine
- Reviews
- Serum uric acid levels and risk of prehypertension: a meta-analysis
- Lactic acidosis: an update
- Mini Review
- Progress and impact of enzyme measurement standardization
- Opinion Paper
- Critical comments to a recent EFLM recommendation for the review of reference intervals
- IFCC Paper
- Quality Indicators in Laboratory Medicine: the status of the progress of IFCC Working Group “Laboratory Errors and Patient Safety” project
- Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics
- Evaluation and comparison of three assays for molecular detection of spinal muscular atrophy
- General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
- Risk analysis of the preanalytical process based on quality indicators data
- Analytical and clinical validation of the new Abbot Architect 25(OH)D assay: fit for purpose?
- Looking beyond linear regression and Bland-Altman plots: a comparison of the clinical performance of 25-hydroxyvitamin D tests
- Next-generation osmotic gradient ektacytometry for the diagnosis of hereditary spherocytosis: interlaboratory method validation and experience
- Diagnosis of sphingolipidoses: a new simultaneous measurement of lysosphingolipids by LC-MS/MS
- Monitoring nicotine intake from e-cigarettes: measurement of parent drug and metabolites in oral fluid and plasma
- Development of a rapid and quantitative lateral flow assay for the simultaneous measurement of serum κ and λ immunoglobulin free light chains (FLC): inception of a new near-patient FLC screening tool
- A real-world evidence-based approach to laboratory reorganization using e-Valuate benchmarking data
- Cancer Diagnostics
- Utility of proGRP as a tumor marker in the medullary thyroid carcinoma
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Can non-cholesterol sterols and lipoprotein subclasses distribution predict different patterns of cholesterol metabolism and statin therapy response?
- Infectious Diseases
- Improving Gram stain proficiency in hospital and satellite laboratories that do not have microbiology
- Diabetes
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- Corrigendum
- EFLM Recommendation
- Corrigendum to: Recommendation for the review of biological reference intervals in medical laboratories
- Letters to the Editor
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- Innovative software for recording preanalytical errors in accord with the IFCC quality indicators
- Mixing studies for abnormal coagulation screen – the current trend
- Identification of 5-fluorocytosine as a new interfering compound in serum capillary zone electrophoresis
- How to define reference intervals to rule in healthy individuals for clinical trials?
- Evaluation of the performance of INDEXOR® in the archive unit of a clinical laboratory: a step to Lean laboratory
- Evaluation of an automated chemiluminescent immunoassay for salivary cortisol measurement. Utility in the diagnosis of Cushing’s syndrome
- Analysis of hemolysis, icterus and lipemia in arterial blood gas specimens
- Comparison of three routine insulin immunoassays: implications for assessment of insulin sensitivity and response
