PRESS RELEASE
THE DARK REPORT
21806 Briarcliff Dr.
Spicewood, Texas 78669
512-264-7103 o
512-264-0969 f
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Ron Martin
rbmartin@darkreport.com
AUSTIN, Texas (September 25, 2015) — The topic of cost-cutting at clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups across the nation remains key. It is budget season, meaning hospitals and labs are being told to aggressively reduce their costs in 2016. Health insurers continue to pay less for medical lab testing. These two factors make the management challenge for labs clear: Get better at cutting costs and moving those resources to lab activities that add clinical value to physicians and payers, and improve patient outcomes.
“Labs in today’s healthcare environment must manage their resources to achieve two related outcomes,” said Robert L. Michel, founder of Lab Quality Confab and Editor-in-Chief of The Dark Report. “The first outcome is for labs to eliminate waste and reduce the source of systemic errors, and to do so in a manner that sustains a high quality lab testing service. This is a crucial response to the year-over-year reduction in revenue that is occurring.
“The second outcome,” Michel continued, “is that labs must take the savings that result from these operational improvements and use that money to build their clinical capabilities. Technology in lab medicine continues to advance at an astonishing rate. To remain clinically relevant, medical laboratories must have the resources to offer new services to their clients. Only by increasing the value, and the array, of the lab testing services they offer to clinicians will community labs endure the forces of consolidation and integration.”
Lab Quality Confab takes place November 3-4 in New Orleans, and is widely considered the touchstone conference for managers working in clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups. Lab Quality Confab provides unparalleled access to professional training in the methods of Lean, Six Sigma, process improvement, and quality management systems (QMS)— training customized to teach quality tools and methods just as they are used in labs and hospitals.
On the program at the Confab’s headquarters hotel, the Sheraton New Orleans, are 60 speakers and 50 sessions. Special certification classes will be included, as well as interactive roundtable sessions and case studies from clinical labs and pathology groups concerning myriad lab functions, from nonconformance management systems to reducing contamination in blood cultures.
Lab Quality Confab presents the ideal venue for laboratory administrators, managers, and quality team members who face a harsh reality: not only are they getting less money today; they have also entered a multi-year period that will see equally dramatic reductions in lab test reimbursement and lab revenue, leaving at stake the financial survival of their labs.
View the full agenda for Lab Quality Confab 2015, including the speaker roster, topics, and times. Or, get information on registration
For additional information, Contact: Ron Martin, 512-264-7103
About THE DARK REPORT
Established in 1995, THE DARK REPORT is the leading source of exclusive business intelligence for laboratory CEOs, COOs, CFOs, Pathologists and Senior industry executives. It is widely read by leaders in laboratory medicine and diagnostics. The Dark Report produces the famous Executive War College on Laboratory and Pathology Management every spring, which showcases innovations by the nation’s and globe’s leading laboratory organizations. Dark Daily is an Internet-based e-briefing intelligence service, read worldwide by thought leaders in laboratory and pathology management. Other well-known conferences conducted by THE DARK REPORT are Lab Quality Confab (on the use of Lean and Six Sigma methods in labs and hospitals) and Molecular Summit (on the integration of in vivo and in vitro diagnostics). THE DARK REPORT co-produces Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine annually in the United Kingdom; Executive Edge bi-annually in Canada; and The Business of Pathology bi-annually in Australia.
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