Impact of a prospective review program for reference laboratory testing requests.

Objectives: To control the cost of reference laboratory testing, to ensure that its usage is medically appropriate, and to review the contribution of reference testing to patient care at our institution.

Methods: A multidisciplinary institutional committee was convened to manage the utilization of reference testing. A subset of tests was designated to be reviewed in real time by a team of clinical pathologists in consultation with clinical subject matter experts.

Significant cost savings achieved by in-sourcing urine drug testing for monitoring medication compliance in pain management.

Introduction: Reference laboratory testing can represent a significant component of the laboratory budget. Therefore, most laboratories continually reassess the feasibility of in-sourcing various tests. We describe the transfer of urine drug testing performed for monitoring medication compliance in pain management from a reference laboratory into an academic clinical laboratory.