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Clinical Laboratory Testing: Laboratory Roles and Your Care Team
Understand the role of clinical laboratory testing, how laboratory services connect with the requesting care team and what to ask about service arrangements.
Clinical laboratory testing provides information used within a person's healthcare. The laboratory and the requesting healthcare professional have related but different roles: the laboratory performs the requested analytical work, while the care team explains its relevance to the person.
Where Laboratory Work Fits
MedlinePlus describes laboratory tests as examinations of samples such as blood, urine or body tissue. Testing can contribute information during routine care and the monitoring of an existing condition. The result belongs within the wider clinical picture considered by the healthcare professional.
The Requesting Team and the Laboratory
The request identifies the laboratory work needed by the care team. The laboratory's service arrangements determine where that request is processed and how the resulting information reaches the requesting professional. A medical office and a laboratory may therefore answer different parts of a patient's practical questions.
For example, a person who has received a laboratory request may need to establish which location can receive it and how the care team will obtain the report. That is different from choosing a test independently or trying to work out its meaning from a service name.
Service Access and Report Access Are Different
An appointment or reception arrangement concerns access to the laboratory service. Report access concerns how completed information is supplied. The discussion of what that information means is a further part of the healthcare relationship. Knowing which organisation handles each stage can reduce confusion after the laboratory work is finished.
A report may become available at a different point from the conversation with the requesting professional. Establish how follow-up is organised rather than treating the arrival of a document as the end of the care discussion.
Questions About Clinical Laboratory Services
Who explains the results in relation to my care?
The requesting healthcare professional is the appropriate contact for that discussion. The laboratory can answer questions about its service and report arrangements.
Can every laboratory location receive every request?
Contact the location with the request details to establish its service arrangements before attending.
What if I am unsure where a report has gone?
Ask the laboratory about its report process and the requesting office about receipt and follow-up. These are separate parts of the same service journey.
The medical laboratories guide provides further information about the provider role.