A hospital pathology laboratory provides accurate diagnostic testing for physicians throughout the hospital. Recently, however, the laboratory’s average report turnaround time has increased, and a substantial number of specimens that the laboratory is equipped to analyze continue to be sent to outside laboratories. Surveys of physicians who regularly use the hospital laboratory indicate that most consider its results reliable and its reports useful. Surveys of physicians who frequently send specimens elsewhere indicate, however, that many are unaware of several types of tests the hospital laboratory already performs and assume that its turnaround times are substantially longer than they actually are. In an effort to make its reports more useful, the laboratory has gradually added increasingly detailed reporting requirements and interpretive commentary, both of which require additional preparation time. In the first column, select the strategy that, in the absence of the other alternatives listed, would most directly reduce the laboratory’s report turnaround time. In the second column, select the strategy that, in the absence of the other alternatives listed, would most directly increase the proportion of eligible specimens analyzed by the hospital laboratory rather than sent elsewhere. Make only two selections, one in each column.

A hospital pathology laboratory provides accurate diagnostic testing : Two-part Analysis (TPA)

Reduce turnaround time	Increase in-house analysis
		Further expand the interpretive commentary included in laboratory reports without increasing staffing
		Distribute to hospital physicians a guide listing the tests the laboratory currently performs and their typical turnaround times
		Expand the laboratory’s test menu to include highly specialized genetic analyses
		Give scheduling priority to hospital departments that already send the largest number of specimens to the laboratory
		Scale back the recently added reporting requirements and interpretive commentary