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CDC Institutes on Critical Issues in Health Laboratory Practice (19841995)

S Shahangian; Division of Laboratory Systems, Public Health Practice Program Office, CDC, Atlanta, GA 30341-3717

Objective:

To convene meetings of stake-holders for the purpose of developing recommendations on laboratory cost containment, quality management, quality improvement, and other issues affecting the quality of laboratory practice.

Outcome:

Coalition building, strategic planning and making recommendations leading to the publication and dissemination of the meeting proceedings.

Participating Population and Setting:

Laboratorians, clinicians, diagnostic manufacturers, those involved in laboratory/healthcare accreditation and regulatory issues, administrators and policy makers, and health systems researchers and educators.

Methods:

Recommendations resulted from presentations by invited experts, nominal group techniques, and break-out workshops involving all participants. These meetings took into account biases of specific groups by bringing together different entities involved in healthcare delivery systems.

Results:

Published recommendations formed the basis for CDC-sponsored laboratory practice research initiatives and institutes. Following are selected recommendations:

1. Cost containment, 1984Revise quality assurance practices to improve cost-effectiveness while maintaining quality.
    
2. Quality management, 1986Provide quantitative data for quality assurance schemes in non-analytical stages of the total testing process.
    
3. Quality improvement, 1989Develop goals for (1) formulating the clinical question, (2) collecting the specimen and managing the sample, (3) selecting and integrating technology, (4) analyzing the sample, (5) validating and reporting results, and (6) interpreting and applying laboratory results for patient care.
    
4. Frontiers in laboratory practice research, 1995Monitor the total testing process, link quality assurance activities to patient outcome, collect laboratory practice data over time, and conduct laboratory focused health systems research.

Conclusion:

Given the evolving nature of laboratory medicine, these institutes delineated thoughtful strategic directions, built coalitions among stake-holders, and made useful recommendations for future laboratory practice research and quality improvement effortssome of which were begun to be implemented.