ARUP Laboratories and Seattle Children's Hospital Collaborate on Utilization Management via Seattle Children's Innovative PLUGS Program

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 18, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ARUP announced it will collaborate with Seattle Children's Hospital to help pediatric hospital laboratories improve ordering practices via Seattle Children's Laboratory Utilization Guidance Services (PLUGS) program. ARUP is the first Gold sponsor of this new, innovative utilization management program.

PLUGS helps pediatric hospital laboratories and practitioners decrease costs and errors associated with unnecessary laboratory testing. PLUGS members who have implemented active utilization management programs save 10 percent or more on send-out costs annually. PLUGS works with institutions to assess, customize, and develop utilization management objectives. Specific areas of support include implementing ordering guidelines, establishing genetic counselor review of expensive tests, and educating physicians.

"ARUP is a leader in test utilization management and has been an inspiration to Seattle Children's efforts to improve test-ordering practices," said Michael Astion, MD, PhD, medical director in the Department of Laboratories at Seattle Children's Hospital. "ARUP's decision to be the first Gold sponsor of the PLUGS network of premier children's hospitals, led by Seattle Children's, is an important step in the journey to improve test utilization. Together we can make a major impact in getting physicians the right test at the right time, while reducing costs to the system and to patients."

ARUP has provided test utilization services to its clients since 1999. ARUP's ATOP™ analytics program identifies potentially overused and misused tests. ARUP's team of genetic counselors works with ordering physicians to correct misordered tests, saving clients thousands of dollars per month. ARUP has also implemented patient-level crosschecks to markedly reduce duplicate germline genetic testing.

"ARUP has offered utilization management assistance to clients for more than a decade. We are excited to sponsor Seattle Children's Hospital's PLUGS program, which will complement and expand our offerings. We hope our combined efforts will draw additional attention to this critical aspect of laboratory diagnostics," stated Brian Jackson, MD, MS, ARUP vice president and chief medical informatics officer.

About ARUP Laboratories

Founded in 1984, ARUP Laboratories is a leading national reference laboratory and a nonprofit enterprise of the University of Utah and its Department of Pathology. ARUP offers more than 3,000 tests and test combinations, ranging from routine screening tests to esoteric molecular and genetic assays. ARUP serves clients across the United States, including many of the nation's top university teaching hospitals and children's hospitals, as well as multihospital groups, major commercial laboratories, group purchasing organizations, military and other government facilities, and major clinics. In addition, ARUP is a worldwide leader in innovative laboratory research and development, led by the efforts of the ARUP Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology®. For more information, visit www.aruplab.com.