Outsourcing Considerations

Time and Effort Investment

Unless the entire case is outsourced directly from the agency, outsourcing is a considerable burden on the laboratory’s resources. For example, the case has already been received, is being tracked by the laboratory’s information management system (LIMS) and may be involved in the case prioritization processes. An analyst may have already screened the evidence to determine if there is any biological evidence that could undergo DNA testing. To outsource a case at this stage requires the analyst to package the evidence for transport along with known standard samples, track the transfer to the outsourcing laboratory in LIMS and possibly issue a report indicating that the samples have left the laboratory. In this scenario, the laboratory has invested significant time and effort in the case before the evidence is sent to another laboratory.