Delays in turnaround time in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) labs
When you’re running a high-throughput NGS lab, time isn’t just time, it’s throughput, revenue, and patient outcomes. The process stretches across 10 to 12 distinct steps, from registering and preparing samples to sequencing, interpreting results, and generating reports. Each one of these steps is a potential failure point. Miss just one, and you’re not just bottlenecking operations, you’re compromising downstream decisions that matter.
Start with the pre-analytic phase. These are the tasks that happen even before a sample touches your lab bench: order entry, specimen labeling, patient ID, transport. Mistakes here account for as much as 60 to 70% of TAT delays in clinical labs. That’s systemic inefficiency being built into your process before your team even begins. These delays compound as they travel down the workflow.
Then comes volume. Labs today, particularly commercial ones, are handling thousands of samples daily. Without precision process management, scaling becomes a liability. Errors that seem small, say, delayed sample login or workflow routing, turn into larger issues when multiplied across entire batches. Every minute added adds up.
NGS labs face another constraint that’s often overlooked: data complexity. They’re not running one machine, analyzing one sample, or relying on a single department. The pipeline spans multiple instruments, layered analytics, and sensitive biomarkers. Integration without disruption requires absolute precision. Any hiccup, downtime in equipment, misassigned IDs, unmonitored handoffs, can immediately extend TAT.
Overlay all that with staffing issues. There’s a consistent global shortage of highly skilled lab technicians. The work isn’t just intensive, it also demands accuracy and adaptability. When you’re running lean and overextended, human error becomes unavoidable, and morale plummets. The result? More delays, higher rework rates, and increasing risk of diagnostic error.
C-suite leaders shouldn’t downplay this, especially in regulated, patient-facing businesses. These are not small inefficiencies, they’re avoidable liabilities. A single delayed diagnosis has implications beyond lab metrics. It directly affects care quality and trust. Addressing these challenges doesn’t just improve lab efficiency, it protects brand credibility and safeguards patient lives.
The point is simple: if you don’t manage the front end and load of your lab effectively, the back end can’t deliver on schedule.
Modern, cloud-based laboratory information management systems (LIMS) provide a comprehensive solution
If you want to fix the turnaround time problem, you don’t patch over inefficiencies, you restructure how information flows. A modern LIMS system does that. It’s infrastructure for operational clarity and scale. You implement it right across your diagnostics workflow and suddenly, the gaps causing delays start to close, permanently.
Modern LIMS digitizes and standardizes key phases in the lab journey. Think order intake, sample accessioning, assignment to workflows, data processing, and final reporting. These steps no longer rely on fragmented systems or manual inputs. Once lab technicians can process samples without needing to chase paper requisitions or re-check handwritten specimen IDs, the chance of errors drops significantly. That alone reduces friction, and with it, turnaround time.
Another core component is real-time coordination. Through an integrated physician portal, test orders can be created directly from the clinician’s side. That’s data entered once, tracked live, and output automatically. There’s no delay between doctor input and lab action. And more importantly, doctors don’t get blind spots in the process, they know where a sample is, what’s being done, and when results are ready. The communication feedback loop is closed.
And here’s where it gets more powerful. The platform integrates cleanly with legacy instruments and third-party systems. That means existing assets aren’t sidelined. Whether data is generated from sequencing machines, automated pipetting systems, or external diagnostics subsystems, it’s pulled into one place. From there, structured reports are generated automatically and sent out without manual assembly. That’s a streamlined outcome pipeline that removes unnecessary latency and nearly eliminates the risk of miscommunication.
Executives should see this clearly: a lab powered by modern LIMS technology isn’t guessing its way through test orders or reacting to bottlenecks after the fact. It’s operating with continuous, data-driven alignment. That advantage compounds over time. Fewer errors. Shorter processing time. Tighter operations. Lower cost per test.
This isn’t about buying IT products. This is about enabling your operations to scale without breaking. It’s about using intelligent systems to remove human and system errors from critical healthcare workflows. That’s what modern labs need to serve growing demand without compromising on precision or accountability.
A modern LIMS accelerates diagnostic processes and enhances overall operational efficiency and data accuracy
Improving turnaround time is important, but it’s not the only outcome. When you implement a modern LIMS, you’re improving far more than speed. You’re increasing the accuracy of every test, reducing risks at scale, and strengthening the consistency of results across the lab. That has direct implications for operational performance and downstream clinical decisions.
Digital sample accessioning is a foundational gain here. Instead of relying on handwritten labels or manual entry into disconnected systems, each sample is tagged and scanned using barcodes or QR codes. This eliminates common entry errors and ensures the right sample is immediately assigned to the correct workflow. In practice, this drives more reliable throughput and protects against errors that would otherwise get caught too late, if they’re caught at all.
From a systems perspective, integration is where things shift meaningfully. A well-implemented LIMS connects disparate instruments, legacy data sources, and external systems into a common framework. That means lab reports can be compiled automatically based on validated outputs, not manually copied between tools. Reports are generated faster, sure. But more importantly, they’re built from controlled, verified information in a closed-loop system. That’s data integrity at scale.
The physician portal further closes the loop by making results instantly available once reporting is complete. No back-and-forth. No manual file transfers. No mismatched data. Physicians don’t have to wait for confirmation or chase results, which directly increases their ability to act quickly and confidently on diagnoses. That responsiveness feeds directly into improved healthcare outcomes.
If you’re a decision-maker, this has a few implications. First, network efficiency isn’t limited to internal operations anymore, it has to extend to your clinical stakeholders and collaborators. Second, the impact of automation and integration is structural. It reduces reliance on individual vigilance and experience and replaces it with consistently applied systems logic. Third, and most importantly, it unlocks scalable growth without scaling errors.
Digitizing and orchestrating your lab this way lowers compliance risk, improves traceability for audits or regulatory checks, and ensures that quality doesn’t degrade when volume increases. And it does all this without forcing you to overhaul your entire IT ecosystem. The tech is there. The value is in how directly you implement it. That’s how you go from incremental efficiency to sustained clinical reliability.
Key takeaways for decision-makers
- Address workflow bottlenecks early: Pre-analytical errors, complex data, and labor shortages are the leading contributors to turnaround time (TAT) delays in NGS labs. Leaders should eliminate inefficiencies at intake and invest in structured processes to safeguard diagnostic speed and accuracy.
- Implement end-to-end LIMS systems: Cloud-based LIMS streamline sample management, data flow, and reporting. Decision-makers should prioritize full integration to eliminate manual errors, reduce friction, and enable real-time visibility across lab functions.
- Automate for scalability and precision: Modern LIMS platforms enhance lab reliability by automating repetitive tasks, integrating legacy systems, and ensuring data traceability. Leaders focused on growth should adopt these systems to meet demand without compromising outcomes or compliance.
