A law was passed recently to allow patients to get lab
results directly from the lab, removing the physician from the equation.
Statistics say that up to 7% of abnormal lab values are
never called to patients by their physician.
The new direct from lab to patient rule aims to solve this problem. However, in solving that problem does it create
another potentially larger issue?
A large percentage of the population is unfamiliar with
medical terminology and/or is not well versed in interpreting lab results. Though I think that some people would be fine
reading the results and looking up unknowns on Google, many could be put at
risk without having a doctor or nurse immediately available to interpret the
results for them.
I see two main issues with a lab releasing results directly
to patients.
1)
Abnormal lab values that are not clinically
significant may cause patients unnecessary concern. Sometimes abnormal values are not an
indication of a bigger problem, but if you are not familiar with the world of
medicine the bright red number on the page signaling an value outside of the “normal”
range may scare you unnecessarily.
2)
As stated above, one of the main reasons for
this new rule is that 7% of abnormal results were not called to the patient by
the physician. I think this rule may create
more of a problem with physician phone calls in the end? It may give physicians who have trouble
remembering to call their patients even less of a reason to follow through on
checking labs. This could end up leaving
more patients without an interpretation from their physician.
Overall, I don’t have strong emotional feelings either way,
but I do think there are some important things to consider with direct to
consumer labs. I would love to hear what
you all have to say about this new law.
Please leave your thoughts and comments below.
No comments:
Post a Comment