🇺🇸United States

Poor operational and financial decisions due to lack of data on send‑out volumes, routes, and turnaround times

4 verified sources

Definition

Without robust tracking, labs lack reliable data on send‑out specimen flows, test volumes per reference lab, transit times, and failure rates, which undermines decisions about which tests to insource, which couriers to use, and how to negotiate reference lab contracts. Sample tracking and LIS resources emphasize that tracking systems provide centralized data and analytics on sample movements and performance; absence of this data leads to blind spots in management decisions.[3][5][7][8][10]

Key Findings

  • Financial Impact: Mispriced or suboptimal reference lab contracts and missed insourcing opportunities can easily cost mid‑size organizations $100,000–$500,000 per year in unnecessary send‑out spend and extended turnaround times impacting downstream costs.
  • Frequency: Monthly
  • Root Cause: Send‑out activity recorded in manual logs or disparate systems with no consolidated reporting; lack of integration between tracking, LIS, and financial systems; and no consistent KPIs for send‑out turnaround, failure rate, and cost per test.[3][5][8][10]

Why This Matters

This pain point represents a significant opportunity for B2B solutions targeting Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories.

Affected Stakeholders

Laboratory directors, Service line leaders (e.g., oncology, genetics), Supply chain and contracting teams, Finance and strategy executives

Deep Analysis (Premium)

Financial Impact

$100,000–$500,000 per year in mispriced contracts and missed insourcing opportunities. • $100,000–$500,000/year excess courier and TAT-related costs • $100,000–$500,000/year from client churn due to slow send-outs

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Current Workarounds

Custom Excel dashboards populated from reference lab portals and courier logs • Custom SQL queries and Excel pivot tables from LIS • Excel aggregation of billing data and manual TAT tracking via email chains

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Methodology & Sources

Data collected via OSINT from regulatory filings, industry audits, and verified case studies.

Evidence Sources:

Related Business Risks

Lost charge capture for send‑out tests due to poor tracking and order/result mismatches

$50,000–$250,000 per year for a mid‑size health system heavily using send‑outs (extrapolated from studies showing 3–5% of lab tests at risk of underbilling or non‑billing when tracking is manual or fragmented in outreach and reference lab programs)

Excess courier, shipping, and labor costs from inefficient send‑out specimen tracking

$5–$15 per package in avoidable premium shipping and re‑shipment costs; $100,000+ per year in combined excess shipping, courier hours, and staff search time for a reference‑heavy hospital lab (based on vendor ROI cases where automated tracking reduces labor and courier expenses by double‑digit percentages)

Lost, misrouted, or compromised send‑out specimens leading to redraws and repeat testing

$50–$200 per affected case (recollection visit, staff time, shipping and test repeat) and easily $100,000+ per year for large labs given frequent redraws and repeats on send‑outs reported in quality programs

Delayed billing and extended AR from slow send‑out status visibility

5–10 days of added days sales outstanding (DSO) for send‑out claims is common in labs without integrated tracking, equating to tens of thousands of dollars in carrying cost for every $1M of annual send‑out revenue

Technologist and coordinator time wasted searching for and reconciling send‑out specimens

0.25–0.5 FTE per shift in many busy labs (tens of thousands of dollars annually) devoted to chasing send‑outs and reconciling logs vs. automated tracking; large reference labs report needing dedicated staff just to trace missing shipments before implementing advanced tracking

Chain-of-custody and traceability deficiencies risking CLIA/ISO nonconformities for send‑outs

$10,000–$50,000+ per major survey finding when considering internal remediation, consultant costs, and potential lost business if accreditation is at risk; repeated deficiencies can also threaten contracts with payers and referring providers.

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