A marked improvement in test result times from SA Pathology won't necessarily spare the organisation from privatisation with the state government looking for further efficiencies.
Health Minister Stephen Wade says the delay in test results was linked to the introduction of a new statewide pathology IT system with 245 incidents logged between March 2017 and May 2018.
He says testing times in most cases have returned to those achieved before the rollout of the new system which imposed complex data-entry requirements.
Some "outlier" results still need to be monitored and reviewed and extra data entry staff would not be removed until the government was sure the improvements could be maintained, the minister said.
But Mr Wade said while the government was not locked into privatising the service, it would press on with an independent review over the next six months of all SA Pathology's operations with a view to improving the "value for money" proposition.
"There are both public and private pathology providers interstate who are providing a similar quality service at a significantly lower price," he said.
"The government is very committed to improving efficiency right across the health system and SA Pathology is one of them.
"We are not presuming that we are going to move to outsourcing or privatisation.
"What we are committed to is improving efficiencies. If these efficiencies can be achieved within SA Pathology as a public provider, we'd be very pleased."
The recent improvement in test result times follows the establishment of a taskforce to review the delays with the state government accepting all its 12 recommendations.
Among those were the ongoing monitoring of all safety and quality incidents, a comparison of turnaround times against industry benchmarks and the need for clinicians to have input into any future changes to reporting procedures.
Taskforce chairman Tom Stubbs said timely test results were important to ensure all patients received the right care as soon as possible.
"So any delay is taken seriously," he said.
