🇺🇸United States

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

3 verified sources

Definition

Poor send‑out tracking forces staff to spend substantial time locating specimens, checking multiple systems or calling reference labs, instead of performing testing or value‑added work. Sample tracking vendors emphasize that their systems eliminate manual transcription and time‑consuming searches and provide near‑100% visibility of specimen location, implying that such searching is currently a significant burden.[1][4][6][8]

Key Findings

  • Financial Impact: 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
  • Frequency: Daily
  • Root Cause: Reliance on paper logbooks or disparate spreadsheets; no consolidated, searchable view of send‑out location and status; and lack of automated notifications when expected specimens are not received at the reference lab.[1][4][6][8]

Why This Matters

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

Affected Stakeholders

Medical technologists, Send‑out/reference lab coordinators, Phlebotomy staff, Lab supervisors

Deep Analysis (Premium)

Financial Impact

$10,000–$25,000 per year in staff time and lost productivity, plus revenue leakage from unbilled send-out orders when specimens cannot be accounted for or must be recollected at a later visit. • $10,000–$30,000 per year in wasted phlebotomist and coordinator time plus added redraw costs, patient dissatisfaction, and risk of uncompensated work when send-out specimens are lost before reaching the reference lab. • $15,000–$40,000 per year in analyst time and consultant costs, plus revenue risk if payers challenge claims, delay payments, or penalize the organization for missed turnaround commitments.

Unlock to reveal

Current Workarounds

Ad hoc SQL queries or LIS reports, manual reconciliation of LIS order logs with courier exports and reference lab interface files, and creation of custom spreadsheets to track problem specimens and monitor turnaround time for send-outs. • Ad-hoc Excel exports from LIS and manual log matching • Cross-checking logs, phone calls to reference labs, and manual Excel reconciliation

Unlock to reveal

Get Solutions for This Problem

Full report with actionable solutions

$99$39
  • Solutions for this specific pain
  • Solutions for all 15 industry pains
  • Where to find first clients
  • Pricing & launch costs
Get Solutions Report

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

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.

Opportunity for inappropriate test billing and misuse of send‑out workflows due to weak tracking controls

$10,000–$100,000+ per year in potential over‑testing and non‑covered tests that may later be denied or clawed back, depending on send‑out volume and payer mix

Request Deep Analysis

🇺🇸 Be first to access this market's intelligence