![https://www.aha.org/sites/default/files/2022-11/CAPS_ExeDialogueCloseGapsPatient_620x381](https://www.aha.org/sites/default/files/2022-11/CAPS_ExeDialogueCloseGapsPatient_620x381.jpg)
Opportunities To Close Gaps In Patient Care Through Laboratory Stewardship
![Banner Image](/sites/default/files/2022-11/CAPS_ExeDialogueCloseGapsPatient_1170x250.png)
Opportunities To Close Gaps In Patient Care Through Laboratory Stewardship
Executive Dialogue
Gaining insights from diagnostics to improve care quality and lower costs systemwide
Today, 70% of medical decisions depend on laboratory test results, which represent 4% to 5% of overall hospital costs. Laboratory stewardship seeks to improve the health of patient populations and the patient experience while reducing care variation; streamline clinical decision support to improve provider satisfaction; and lower health care costs by avoiding over- and under-testing. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted laboratory services-underuse opportunities in chronic-disease management and in communities facing inequities of care. This executive dialogue explores the key elements in a successful laboratory stewardship program that promote evidence-based care to improve quality metrics and financial performance.
8 Ways to Advance the Effectiveness of your Laboratory Stewardship Program
- Set goals that are effective, efficient, timely and patient-centered. Develop a good clinical oversight function to optimize care or reduce the cost of care.
- Evaluate opportunities in reference lab spend, laboratory formularies, and review of order sets to eliminate redundancies and unnecessary tests.
- Understand the governance in your hospital or health system. To optimize care or reduce the cost of care, you need a culture of change in the hospital to standardize laboratory operations.
- Pathologist-led laboratory stewardship matches care to science and avoids the overuse of ineffective care and underuse of effective care.
- Cultivate physician champions. Enlist executive leader sponsorship and influential medical leaders who have credibility with the medical staff to advocate for buy-in.
- Identify staff who work with day-to-day processes to generate ideas for process improvement. Often laboratory directors and managers see opportunities to improve your hospital laboratory operations.
- Build a multidisciplinary team that includes finance and information technology. Review plans with finance for the positive or negative impact on the return on investment. Build a relationship with information technology to modify orders sets in the electronic health record, and develop analytics and scorecards.
- Analyze the data and the outcomes. After analyzing your data, identify opportunities to optimize utilization and improve outcomes.
Participants
![Donna D. Cooper](/sites/default/files/2022-08/Donna_Cooper_300x300.jpg)
Donna D. Cooper, MS, MBA
Senior Director, Product Solutions
Quest Diagnostics
![Andrew Fletcher](/sites/default/files/2022-10/Fletcher_Andrew_300x300.jpg)
Andrew Fletcher, M.D., MBA, CPE, CHCQM, FCAP
Founder
Eutilogic Consulting
![Mohiedean “Mohi” Ghofrani](/sites/default/files/2022-10/Ghofrani_Mohiedean_300x300.jpg)
Mohiedean “Mohi” Ghofrani, M.D., MBA
System Laboratory Medical Director
PeaceHealth
![Brian R. Jackson](/sites/default/files/2022-10/Jackson_Brian_300x300.jpg)
Brian R. Jackson, M.D., MS, FCAP
Medical Director, Business Development, Support Services and IT
ARUP Laboratories
![Bob Kehoe](/sites/default/files/2022-10/Kehoe_Bob_300x300.jpg)
Moderator:
Bob Kehoe
Manager, Content Development, AHA Center for Health Innovation
American Hospital Association
AHA Executive Dialogue Series
Gain insights from the C-suite and health care leaders on the most pressing issues and transformational strategies.
Explore the Series