Dry chemistry: its expanded role in doctor's office testing.

The physician's office laboratory is an important adjunct to quality patient care. Dry chemistry reagents and the instrumentation used with them provide an ideal mechanism to give the patient a timely, relatively inexpensive work-up. An office laboratory can save the physician and his or her staff many frustrations. But unless the physician's office laboratory director makes use of the assistance of laboratorians and manufacturers in setting up good quality assurance systems along with the choice of dry chemistry system, the director may merely replace his or her frustrations with new ones. The limitations of an office laboratory are far outweighed by the benefits in quality patient care.