Selecting and managing a professional consultant to a clinical laboratory.

: Managers of clinical laboratories, like those in other complex organizations, will often seek the advice of external professional consultants to provide solutions to current problems. Optimizing the process of selecting and managing consultants to clinical laboratories is the topic of this article. A number of practical tips are offered, including a discussion of the use of nontraditional consultants. Special emphasis is placed on developing a request for proposal and evaluating responses to the request for proposal by the various consulting firms bidding for the engagement. The use of consultants in the health-care arena in general and clinical laboratories in particular will undoubtedly increase as financial and organizational challenges to the industry continue to proliferate.