CAPHLD
Whitepaper

CONCLUSION

We have reviewed the history of the public health laboratory in California. Public health laboratories are established under State law and are part of the highest priorities of a health department. The public health laboratory has been shown to be an indispensable part of public health. We have compared the means by which public health laboratories determine their costs.

Public health laboratories generate standardized data. These data are used at the local, State and national level as a basis to determine the level of disease and disease causing agents in the population.

The public health laboratory provides test results on specimens that clinical laboratories do not examine. Some of these are rabies, water, food poisoning and dairy products. Public health laboratories also provide consultation to clinical laboratories within their jurisdictions in the area of Microbiology. By law, release specimens must be tested in a public health laboratory.

We have looked at the temptation to resolve budgetary problems by eliminating the public health laboratory. We have seen what happens when public health and by extension public health laboratory activities are curtailed. We encountered incidents of measles resurgence and the emergence of MDR-TB.

We have presented evidence of support from the CCLHO Platform Statement and the Institute of Medicine. We have provided data to show that merger of the public health laboratory with clinical laboratories may well erode the quality and level of service that is vital to the health and well being of the population at large in each jurisdiction. This would weaken the link between local jurisdictions and the State. The State would thereby be compromised in its efforts to safe guard the health and welfare of its citizens and adversely impact the national efforts in disease control.

The missions of public health and clinical laboratories are distinctly different. This is true because the patient served is different. The patient for the public health laboratory is the community, while it is the individual presenting in clinic that is served by the clinical laboratory. It is impractical to combine these two distinct missions.

We believe we have presented information which strongly supports both the need and the notion that the public health laboratory is essential in the present and future health plan for the local health jurisdiction.