Upsala J Med Sci 95: 249, 1990 

Comments. Aspects of Administration and Economical 
Planning of Clinical Laboratories in Sweden 

Carl-Henric de Verdier 
Department of Clinical Chemistry, University of Uppsala, 

Uppsala, Sweden 

The tendency towards decentralization and delegation of economi- 
cal responsibility is very clear also in Sweden in health care 
organization in general and in clinical laboratories in particu- 
lar. In many administrative areas for health care - counties - 
it is planned from 1991 or 1992 not to give the clinical chemical 
laboratories a fixed annual budget but to distribute economical 
resources to the clinics and the primary care districts and let 
them buy laboratory services according to a predetermined price- 
list. This has been called Itzero budgetingt1. 

Economists have discussed to what extent the wards and the 
primary care units should request service from the laboratories 
of their own public health organization or from independent 
public or private laboratories. Most economists seem to agree 
that, in general, it is waste of resources not to primarily use 
the laboratories of the own organization. 

In determining the prices of the price-list it is important to 
have the possibilities to charge higher fees for investigations 
with higher "laboratory quality specifications" or lower detec- 
tion limits. This is an important argument for the work with 
quality specifications. 

Correspondence: 
Professor Carl-Henric de Verdier 
Department of Clinical Chemistry, University of Uppsala 
Postal address: University Hospital 
S-751 8 5  Uppsala, Sweden. 

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