Air Force's Central Reference Laboratory: Maximizing Service While MinimizingCost. (Reannouncement with New Availability Information)

摘要

The Laboratory Services Branch (Epi Lab), of the Epidemiology Division, USAFSchool of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks AFB, Texas, is designated as the U.S. Air Force's (USAF) central reference laboratory, providing clinical laboratory testing support to all USAF medical treatment facilities (MTFs). Epi Lab recognized that it was not offering the MTFs a service comparable to civilian reference laboratories and that as a result the USAF medical system was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly for commercial laboratory support. An in-house laboratory upgrade program was proposed and approved by the USAF Surgeon General, as a Congressional Efficiencies Add project, to launch a two-phase initiative consisting of a 1 year field trial of 30 MTFs, followed by expansion to another 60 MTFs. Major components of the program include overnight air courier service to deliver patient samples to Epi Lab, a mainframe computer labor information system (LIS) and electronic reporting of results to the MTFs throughout the CONUS. Application of medical marketing techniques and the Total Quality Management philosophy were involved.... Clinical laboratory, Laboratory management, Medical economics, Total quality management, Marketing.