THE IMPORTANCE OF COOPERATION BETWEEN NURSING AND CLINICAL MEDICAL LABORATORIES IN IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE

Abstract

Clinical laboratory tests play an important role in health care today. Laboratory tests are becoming a foundation of evidence-based health care and clinical decision-making. They influence 60-70% of the decisions in health care and account for 10-15% of total health care costs. However, laboratory medicine’s share of improved clinical outcomes is low, at only 1-2%. Thus, there is an urgent need for cooperation between nursing and clinical medical laboratories to improve the quality of health care. (Zima, 2017) Health care systems across the world need to provide safe, efficient, and high-quality health care for all citizens. Several efforts have been made to improve the performance of health care systems, but these have had limited success. While many stakeholders participate in and influence health care systems, the responsibility for health care quality and outcomes rests primarily with health care providers. However, the effectiveness of health care providers is often suboptimal. To improve this effectiveness, best practices have been identified where one clinical specialty uses laboratory medicine to significantly improve clinical outcomes. These innovative health care professionals have transformed the traditional standards of care to achieve exceptional outcomes that would not have been possible without the clinical laboratory. The key performance indicators (KPIs) for patients, payors, clinicians, and health systems all improved through the strategic engagement of laboratory medicine within the integrated clinical care teams. (Strain & H. Ravalico, 2021)