Identifying Opportunities to Improve Transparency and Quality in Laboratory Medicine

Purpose

The National Quality Forum will assist the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in establishing a national Institute of Quality in Laboratory Medicine (IQLM), and working with the CDC and IQLM, will identify and prioritize opportunities and strategies to improve the transparency, effectiveness and efficiency of laboratory testing services in the United States.

Background

The quality of Laboratory Medicine as part of the health care continuum has a direct and significant bearing on the prevention, early detection and management of medical conditions. 

Until recently lab quality management programs have focused primarily on test utilization  and technical quality assurance.  However, in recent years, performance measurement has moved to assessing the quality of laboratory medicine across the spectrum of activities including the pre-analytic phase– procedures from the time the test was ordered until analyzed (e.g., proper test ordered by provider, labeling, or specimen transportation), analytic phase – the analysis of the specimen by automated, semi-automated or manual means; and, post-analytic – all procedures from the time a result was produced in the laboratory to provider interpretation and use.  

Like much of the healthcare system, there is much fragmentation in Laboratory Medicine that makes the sharing of best practices and the dissemination of information difficult.  To that end, the IQLM is being established to provide a comprehensive program for quality management in Laboratory Medicine.

Scope

This is a 3-year project funded by the CDC: 

1. establish the IQLM as a central body for the identification, evaluation, consensus development and dissemination of consensus standards, practice guidelines, performance measures and national reporting on quality for laboratory testing services;
2. convene a workshop to address topics germane to quality improvement in laboratory medicine; 
3. commission a research paper analyzing existing laboratory measures and guidelines. 

The goal of these objectives is to create and effective, dynamic national infrastructure for the identification, evaluation and advancement of activities and strategies that support continuous, timely quality improvement in laboratory testing services as part of the national agenda for improving quality across the spectrum of healthcare services.

Funding

This project was funded by a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For more information, please contact Fatema Salam, MPH at 202.783.1300 or email at fsalam@qualityforum.org.