[Excessive spending by misuse of clinical laboratory].

Seventy five percent or more of a diagnosis comes from a proper medical history along with an excellent physical examination. This leaves to the clinical laboratory the function of supporting the findings, determining prognosis, classifying the diseases, monitoring the diseases and, in the minimum of cases, establishing the diagnosis. In recent years there has been a global phenomenon in which the allocation of resources to health care has grown in an excessive way; the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social is not an exception with an increase of 29 % from 2009 to 2011; therefore, it is necessary to set containment and reduction without compromising the quality of patient care.