Referral Labs: Critical Partners in Patient Care and in Business

Clinical laboratories provide a wide range of diagnostic tests to aid clinicians in correctly diagnosing their patients’ illnesses, which will lead to the proper treatment. Test offerings range anywhere from simple urinalysis to the more complex nucleic acid amplifications. But let’s face it, not all laboratories have the capability to perform all the tests. Whether it be limitations due to facilities, location, equipment, manpower, budget, reagents, etc., very few laboratories will have the capacity to test every myriad of procedures clinicians require.

This is where referral labs come in. Referral laboratories play crucial roles in assisting hospital-based laboratories and diagnostic clinics with their testing requirements.

The Role in Patient Care

Referral laboratories are “go to” facilities for clinical laboratories for tests that they are unable to perform for the following reasons:

Esoteric Testing

When patients come in with requests for specialized tests, clinical laboratories have the option to cater to the patient’s requirements by offering the referral as a service rather than having the patient search for a laboratory capable of performing the test. The testing lab performs the tests that they have and refers the ones they can’t to a referral lab. By doing so, the patient benefits from the convenience of dealing with just one entity for pre-examination documentation workups and specimen collection rather than multiple labs.

Out Of Stock Reagents and Machine Breakdowns

Even when labs are capable of performing routine tests, there will be times when the inevitable happens. A mishap in the inventory for some reason will result in a reagent being out of stock, which will mean the lab is unable to perform the tests they normally do. Or a critical component of the testing equipment breaks down and the technician is unable to make repairs on time. In these instances, the lab sends the specimens to a referral lab in order to have the tests performed as soon as possible and the results ready for the patient and physician.

Manpower Shortage and High Workload

Lab Techs are only humans, and machines also have their limits. Combine manpower shortage with a high workload, and you have a potential recipe for delayed results. Referral labs help by taking up the slack in order to achieve the desired TAT (Turn Around Time) for the results.

Confirmatory and Comparative Testing

Results are too high, too low, or simply erratic? Referral labs provide the clinical lab comparative test results to help solve the problem. The same thing goes when performing lab-to-lab comparisons during Quality Control Testing, Validation Testing, and Inter Lab Comparisons.

The Role As Business Partners

Let’s face it. While the primary role of clinical laboratories is to aid in the diagnosis of diseases and general well-being, these are also businesses that operate for a profit, just like any other business (except for government and non-profits). As such, clinical labs also explore options on how to maximize their resources (equipment, reagents, manpower, etc.) while still providing the highest possible quality results. Referral Labs act as business partners by providing testing services in these situations:

Low Census

There is a certain ratio in order to profitably run a test. When there are not enough specimens to be optimal in running an assay, these may be sent to a referral lab since these labs already have these factored in for their daily runs. Referral labs can do this by pooling specimens from different partner labs so that an assay is run optimally and profitably.

Special Equipment and Reagents

As mentioned earlier, equipment and reagents are costly, and not all labs are able to afford all the equipment and reagents for all the tests. But this doesn’t mean that the clinical lab will not be able to offer other assays beyond their capabilities. Rather than inconvenience the patient by searching for a capable lab themselves, clinical labs send the specimen to a referral lab for testing. A reasonable Handling Fee is usually collected for the patient’s convenience.

Collaborations

When clinical labs have projects for Industrial Accounts or Companies requiring one-time bulk testing for their employees, clinical labs partner with referral labs to augment the tests which are beyond their usual test offerings. The clinical lab gains by acquiring the project for the complete requirements of their client.

Non-Competition

It is important to note that referral labs operate on a non-competition business model. Meaning, they do not compete with their clients. It would not be unusual for a referral lab to have higher prices on their listed test offerings when compared to their clients. Referral labs encourage patients to use the services of their client lab rather than serve the clients themselves. This strategy builds the client base and client loyalty of the referral lab.

While the details in the article are by no means complete, it is the hope of the writer that an overview of the important but lesser-known role of the referral lab has been provided.