Why do we have to have clinical laboratories?

Clinical laboratories are licensed and inspected - at least in my state - to ensure that they provide quality analysis of blood and body fluids and other specimens.

Since blood and body fluids may be a source of disease to those who come in close contact, universal precautions must be followed. This process of wearing disposable gloves, gowning when appropriate, safely disposing of tubes, stoppers, needles, syringes and the like is expensive, and has an impact on sanitary landfills.

If there were no clinical laboratories, analyses of blood and other bodily components would be performed by doctors, nurses, assistants of various ability rather than by registered technicians. Quality of results would suffer, with potential to errors in diagnosis and treatment.