The new paradigm: Laboratory capability tiers

1

tier 1:
 front line

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

2

tier 2:
 rapid response 

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.

3

Tier 3: central

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

4

tier 4: esoteric

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