Purpose of Guidelines

The OAML’s Guidelines for Clinical Laboratory Practice are intended to support improved patient outcomes by encouraging better-informed, clinically relevant decisions about laboratory test ordering and more effective use of health care resources. The OAML strives to improve the quality of patient care by providing community healthcare practitioners with information about laboratory tests to help ensure that the right test is ordered on the right person at the right time.  The Guidelines provide community health care practitioners with recommendations regarding which clinical situations warrant requesting a test, which test to order, limitations of the test, how to order the test, collect the specimen, and interpret the results.