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Key Players: Laboratory
Support from the hospital laboratory director is critical. If the tests are performed at the point of care, the lab director's role may be pure oversight, depending on who in the ED is monitoring quality and performance.
At a minimum, lab directors are concerned about and legally responsible for proper test administration and interpretation of test results, so they will need to work with the ED to establish procedures for performing the test, storing test kits, and assuring quality.
Some labs may prefer to run all tests from the lab, requiring additional staff resources as well as expedited processes for delivering results in a timely manner. Tests that are not run through the lab or overseen by the lab are not recorded in patients' medical records; this has implications for the clinical use of results and perhaps for ongoing tracking.
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