How to Get Started With Laboratory Stewardship

The concept of laboratory stewardship has come a long way in the past 10 years, but according to a recent survey, only 43% of hospitals have some form of lab stewardship activity, according to Andrew Fletcher, MD, MBA, CPE, CHCQM, medical director of laboratory stewardship at Accumen and president and founder of eutilogic consulting.

Lab stewardship works to improve the ordering, collection, processing, and reporting of laboratory testing to improve patient management and outcomes. Ultimately, lab stewardship aims to ensure that the correct test is ordered for the right patient at the right time and prompts the right action. But while the benefits of such programs are clear, actually implementing a stewardship program can be daunting.

“It’s really hard to get started,” says Fletcher. “There are a lot of great lab stewardship concepts out there in problem areas, such as reducing daily tests, duplicate tests, unneeded reference tests, etcetera, but with limited time and resources, it can be a heavy lift to implement.”

Fletcher will explain how laboratorians and face down these obstacles to get started with lab stewardship during a roundtable discussion, Laboratory Stewardship: How to Get Started, at the 2023 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo on July 26 in Anaheim, California. The discussion will explore the advantages and challenges of creating a stand-alone laboratory stewardship committee or taking advantage of existing compliance or utilization review committees.

“I chose the how to get started topic to remove the barriers of entry into lab stewardship and help lab leaders find realistic ways anyone can start meaningful stewardship activities,” explains Fletcher. “The audience will leave with information showing all labs can contribute to meaningful lab stewardship no matter if they are a lab for an academic hospital system, critical access hospital, or stand-alone core or reference lab. Getting started does not have to begin with the sometimes daunting challenge of starting a stewardship committee. Anyone from administration to lab managers to bench techs to phlebotomists can start lab stewardship today.”

Fletcher adds that in many ways laboratories have often become ancillary services and are too often considered nothing more than a cost center. While the COVID-19 pandemic helped somewhat to correct these perceptions, he notes that it can still be difficult to gain a seat at the table when it comes to sharing lab expertise within a healthcare delivery system.

“Doing so not only benefits our profession but helps us contribute to quality care and patient safety,” he says. “We are not just an ancillary service. In fact, we should be considered a primary service, and the delivery of modern healthcare depends on us. Laboratory stewardship helps us demonstrate that commitment.”

This session is intended for physicians, lab supervisors, lab directors and managers, and pathologists. Among the topics that will be covered during the roundtable:

• How to create a stewardship committee using a committee charter
• How to integrate stewardship committee interventions into an existing utilization review committee
• How to integrate stewardship committee interventions into an existing compliance committee structure

Kimberly Scott is a freelance writer who lives in Lewes, Delaware. +Email: [email protected]