The COVID-19 pandemic has led to shortages in both workforce and supplies required by medical laboratories all over the world. This strain on our medical laboratories poses a challenge to provide continued quality care to patients.

With these shortages expected to persist throughout the year, health providers are urged to collaborate with laboratories to promote sustainable health care practices to mitigate the crisis.

The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists (CSCC) has developed a Practice Alert which outlines the crisis and provides essential recommendations that healthcare professionals and providers, as well as laboratory staff can use in their daily practice to help with the conservation efforts that promote sustainable practices within the healthcare system.

Some of these recommendations include:

• Healthcare providers - Delay non-urgent testing, combine tests when possible and utilize add-on and reflex testing.
• Laboratory professionals - Consolidate tubes, allow for add-on testing, inform users of tube requirements, and consider alternate products.
• Phlebotomy - Optimize collections to prevent redraws, draw blood only for requested tests and avoid duplicate orders.

To ensure our medical facilities and laboratories operate optimally, it is imperative that we practice good stewardship of our resources and incorporate these recommendations as part of routine practice.

To learn more, visit Choose Wisely Canada  and CSCC.