National Committee for Lab Stewardship
Mission:
Improve the quality and value of clinical care through establishing national standards for laboratory test utilization.
Vision:
To promote and enable the highest standards of effective test utilization in every clinical setting.
Approach:
Appropriate utilization of clinical laboratory services is important for patient care and requires
institutional stewardship. Clinical laboratory stewardship programs are dedicated to improving the
ordering, retrieval, and interpretation of appropriate laboratory tests. In addition, these programs
focus on developing, maintaining, and improving systems to provide proper financial coverage for
medically necessary testing. Overall, clinical laboratory stewardship programs help clinicians improve
the quality of patient care while reducing costs to patients, hospitals, and health systems.
Link to the article published in The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine, Transforming laboratory utilization into laboratory stewardship: Guidelines by the PLUGS National Committee for Laboratory Stewardship.
Committee:
This effort is led by a multi-institutional committee interested in promoting and formalizing laboratory stewardship:
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Michael Astion |
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Seattle Children's Hospital |
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Brian Jackson |
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ARUP Laboratories |
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Robert Carpenter |
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ARUP Laboratories |
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David Keren |
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University of Michigan |
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Jane Dickerson |
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Seattle Children's Hospital |
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Joe Miles |
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ARUP Laboratories |
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Andrew Fletcher |
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ARUP Laboratories |
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Gary Procop |
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Cleveland Clinic |
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Joaquin Garcia |
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Mayo Medical Laboratories |
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Ila Singh |
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Texas Children's Hospital |
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Four basic elements of laboratory stewardship programs:
The Committee has summarized the core elements of successful hospital-based clinical laboratory stewardship programs. These elements are also helpful for independent commercial clinical laboratories.
1. Governance
2. Interventions
3. Data extraction and monitoring
4. Review and Improve
New! We are welcoming feedback of the draft checklists. Please review and send feedback to: Jane.Dickerson@seattlechildrens.org.