Lab Trends Tiers

The new paradigm: Laboratory capability tiers

tier 1: front line

tier 2: rapid response

Tier 3: central

tier 4: esoteric

Point-of-care testing at patient service centers, physician offices and beside.

Acute care hospital laboratories where testing is limited to STAT testing with a <2-hour turnaround time. Many hospital laboratories should look at adopting this tier.

High-volume automated central laboratories including microbiology, mass spectroscopy, anatomic pathology and cytopathology. This tier is the typical central laboratory serving multiple hospital locations.

Molecular diagnostic tests, cytogenetics, whole genome sequencing, next-generation sequencing, exome, specialty microbiology, etc. This tier is the typical independent laboratory.