Biomaterial Database

Effects of workload and analysis time on the cost of out-of-hours investigations. 1986

I R Gunn, and A J Little, and R B Payne

In the UK, under present Whitley Council Regulations for payment for out-of-hours pathology services, there is a complex relationship between the number of requests received, the time taken to analyse each request, and the number of calls for which payment may be claimed for work done. At a fixed average analysis time, the rate of increase of remuneration slows down as workload increases until at higher workloads remuneration falls. The introduction of methods with a shorter average analysis time to improve the clinical service increases remuneration disproportionately. We suggest that a fixed sessional payment would be a better way of funding the service.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007753	Laboratories	Facilities equipped to carry out investigative procedures.	Laboratory
D004630	Emergencies	Situations or conditions requiring immediate intervention to avoid serious adverse results.	Emergency
D019411	Clinical Laboratory Techniques	Techniques used to carry out clinical investigative procedures in the diagnosis and therapy of disease.	Clinical Laboratory Test,Clinical Laboratory Testing,Clinical Laboratory Diagnoses,Clinical Laboratory Testings,Clinical Laboratory Tests,Diagnoses and Laboratory Examinations,Diagnosis, Laboratory,Laboratory Diagnosis,Laboratory Examinations and Diagnoses,Laboratory Techniques, Clinical,Clinical Laboratory Technique,Diagnose, Clinical Laboratory,Laboratory Diagnoses,Laboratory Technique, Clinical,Laboratory Test, Clinical,Laboratory Testing, Clinical,Technique, Clinical Laboratory,Test, Clinical Laboratory,Testing, Clinical Laboratory