About 1 in 3 U.S. adults avoid or delay blood tests, leaving physicians without results that inform most clinical decisions. Here's how easier scheduling, less-invasive collection options and clearer results communication can help patients complete ordered testing.
A patient may defer a routine checkup because they anticipate a blood draw that makes them squeamish. Or after a provider orders blood work, they may intend to follow through but never complete the test. In either case, the sample is never drawn, results are never reported and an important clinical question may remain unanswered.
This is not uncommon. In
There can also be a practice-level consequence. Patients often experience diagnostic follow-through as part of the care they receive from the provider who placed the order — not as a separate laboratory transaction. If testing is inconvenient, stressful or confusing, that frustration can reflect on the provider’s organization, weakening trust and future engagement.
Diagnostic follow-through can break down before or after a visit. Some patients postpone routine care because they are fearful or anxious about venipuncture. Others leave with an order and face the added burden of locating a lab, scheduling a separate appointment and frequently waiting in line. Needle anxiety and prior difficult experiences can make the collection experience itself an important — and often underestimated — barrier to completing ordered testing.
Closing that gap starts with a simple question: How easy is it for the patient to access, complete and understand the test? In practice, the answer comes down to convenience, collection experience and communication.
One common barrier to completing testing is simply getting to the test site. Many organizations are expanding collection options beyond traditional patient-service centers, including ambulatory, retail and community settings. These models require strong operational foundations: laboratory information-system integration, standardized collection protocols, proper specimen preparation and handling, and chain-of-custody documentation.
Scheduling is another important variable. Rigid appointment windows and difficult-to-navigate scheduling interfaces can add friction. Practices have several tools to consider, including open-access scheduling, self-scheduling, mobile check-in and reminder outreach.
The lesson is straightforward: scheduling should fit into patients’ lives rather than force patients to organize their lives around a lab appointment. Otherwise, providers risk creating an experience patients remember as difficult and impersonal.
Needle fear is another meaningful barrier. McLenon and Rogers'
For selected tests performed through specifically validated workflows, capillary blood collection or micro-sampling can be an appropriate alternative to venous collection. But capillary and venous specimens are not interchangeable by default. Suitability depends on the analyte, collection device, specimen management, assay method, intended use and the performing laboratory’s validation.
Providers do not need to become collection-technology experts. They do need to understand when a validated alternative may be available, when venipuncture remains necessary, and how to direct patients to assay-specific information about their options.
The goal is not to replace venipuncture in every circumstance. It is to give providers a clinically appropriate option when the test, workflow and patient preference or presentation support it, removing one more barrier to completing an order.
Even a convenient collection experience may fall short if results are delayed, inaccessible or unclear. A systematic review of ambulatory care by
Technology is an enabler, but the hard part is creating a follow-up process patients can understand and care teams can reliably execute. A single, accessible channel for test status and results can make the experience easier to navigate. Results should be reported in plain language and connected to a clear path for clinical interpretation. When an abnormal finding needs action, patients should know who will contact them, when that follow-up will occur, and what to do if they have questions.
The diagnostics system has an alignment problem. Barriers may arise before an order is placed, when a patient avoids a visit because of anticipated discomfort or inconvenience, or afterward, when completing an order requires additional scheduling, travel, time away from work and a blood draw.
Providers cannot force blood testing adherence. But providers, health care organizations, laboratories and technology partners can improve it by sharing responsibility for making the end-to-end process easy to navigate, comfortable and productive.
With clinical decision-making so dependent on blood testing results, optimizing that process for patients makes sense from both care and practice management perspectives.
Web Golinkin is chief executive officer of
