Audit in laboratory medicine.

Laboratory medicine is at a crossroads that provides great opportunities to improve the efficacy of the service and its role in healthcare. Many of the new roles for laboratory staff will be outside the boundaries of the traditional laboratory. These roles include increased emphasis on consultative activities, participation in interdisciplinary teams, and efforts to assure appropriate test utilization. Audit in laboratory medicine may be defined as a process of review and assessment of laboratory performance, and its purpose should be to improve patient care by enhancing laboratory performance and making better use of resources. Here we discuss the rationale of audit in laboratory medicine, its goals as well as its topics. The suggested conduct for an audit and the involvement of personnel are also reviewed.