40 KPIs Molecular Labs Should Use

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics put in place to provide transparency within your laboratory, help avoid pitfalls, and help achieve your overall business objectives.

Here at NovoPath, our clients use KPIs to assess the performance of their IT systems, equipment, interoperability, staff, and everything in between.

By monitoring KPIs in real-time, our clients are becoming MORE proactive and detecting unforeseen items or fixing them quickly reducing the impact on the overall lab.

The Need for KPIs in Molecular Laboratories

Molecular workflows are complex and, in the past, have been hard to automate and optimize. The need to reduce operating costs has never been greater and to optimize any workflow, particularly a molecular one, you start with real-time benchmarks.

Whether you’re a lab whose been performing anatomic testing for years and looking to expand into molecular or you’re starting up a new lab or you’re only performing next-generation sequencing – this blog is for you.

Business KPIs

Business KPIs are leading indicators of how the overall laboratory business is running. Are you making enough money to grow, can you invest in offering additional tests, can you hire more staff? These higher-level business KPIs provide the data needed to make important business decisions.

Monthly, quarterly, and yearly orders
Revenue, month over month and annually
Revenue per sample/analysis
The total cost of sample analysis for each test performed
Quality control failures
Customer satisfaction
Customer retention
Downtime and response times
Overall turnaround times

Lab Operations KPIs

Accuracy of patient identification at the time of specimen collection
Accuracy and completeness of examination/test requests
Numbers and sources of, and reasons why specimens do not meet the laboratory’s acceptance criteria
Specimens lacking sufficient quantity at the examination
Purity of extraction control
Concentration of extraction control
Number of and reasons for repeat examination, by examination
Number of times and reasons for failures of calibration materials or controls for a given instrument or test system
Number of times and reasons for technical failures of a given instrument or test system
Number of samples per batch or run or stat samples
Number of label errors
Number of specimens in wrong containers
Samples lost
Completeness of laboratory reporting of critical values
Numbers and types of reporting errors
Turnaround Time (TAT) on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis

Quality Control KPIs

Sample identification errors
Sample type errors
Sample filling orders
Sample transportation errors
Calibrator errors
Errors with controls
Sample testing errors

Interoperability KPIs

Number of transactions
Quality of data exchanged

Billing KPIs

Unbilled claims
Error or denial by client
Average time from requisition to payment
Average payment received per accession
Days in A/R
Payor reimbursement time
A/R over 90 Days
Claim denial rate
First pass acceptance rate

NovoPath 360 Laboratory Information System

NovoPath LIS supports molecular labs with out-of-the-box management reports that provide any lab complete transparency into their operations.

Stacked with patient-centric, business management, and lab reports see how our clients stay on top of the busiest labs with NovoPath 360. Some of our out-of-the-box reports include: