Jul 31, 2017 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
Sonora Quest Labs and Incyte Diagnostics streamline operations, eliminate data silos, and increase efficiencies using real-time analytics from laboratory-specific CRM
Across the nation, clinical laboratories and anatomic pathologists face two common challenges. One is shrinking lab budgets and less payment for lab tests. The other is the need to maintain physician and patient services at a high level. Both factors are fueling greater interest in lab and healthcare-specific customer relationship management (CRM).
Stated another way, labs and pathology groups are being squeezed by the need to operate on less revenue, while also increasing their quality of customer service to retain existing clients and expand market share. CRMs are a proven way to achieve and sustain superior levels of customer service in a surprisingly cost-effective way. In fact, many labs that implement a CRM find that the return on investment comes swiftly, in just a few months.
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups Hit by Declining Prices, Revenues
“The clinical lab industry is solidly in an era where payers are slashing the prices they pay for lab tests and hospitals—struggling with their own financial problems—are cutting their lab budgets,” observed Robert L. Michel, Editor-in-Chief of The Dark Report, “These factors are motivating lab administrators and pathologists to look for solutions that allow them to run their lab at less cost, while improving staff productivity and customer service.
“This is why first-mover and early-adopter medical labs saw the potential of real-time analytical middleware and lab-specific CRM solutions to help them meet the challenge of running their labs on less money, while simultaneously sustaining superior levels of customer service,” continued Michel. “Every lab manager knows that the path to improved profitability is blocked by poor workflows, time-consuming quality metrics processes, and disconnected sales and customer service teams.”
Innovative medical laboratory managers report that their investment in laboratory-specific CRM systems (also known as healthcare-specific CRM) suddenly gives them access to data that has been locked away within their legacy LIS and other software systems. By unlocking this data in real-time dashboards and reports, they gain competitive advantage in the lab testing marketplace. A healthcare-specific CRM makes it possible to monitor a wide range of activities, including:
- Proactively tracking relations with client physicians;
- Monitoring workflow and lab operations in real time; and
- Gaining a comprehensive view of all sales and customer service activities at both the aggregate and provider levels.
Tracking Key Benchmarks, Productivity, and Accountability
Sonora Quest Laboratories (SQL) of Tempe, Ariz., a joint venture between Banner Health and Quest Diagnostics (NASDAQ:DGX), wanted to reduce the amount of time spent collating reports and performing manual calculations, as well as breaking down cumbersome data silos across the organization in order to streamline communication and collaboration.
Prior to activating a laboratory-specific CRM platform, employees at SQL spent five hours per day pulling key metrics and reports. To move forward with strategic initiatives, the company could not continue to “struggle with endless silos of data and information,” a case study on SQL’s challenges states.
CRM Designed for Medical Laboratories and Pathology Groups
To address these concerns, SQL turned to a laboratory-specific CRM that integrates existing silos and systems into a centralized interface through automated data capturing. The solution provides detailed, real-time dashboards with visibility across the organization. Graphs and charts enable users to:
- Track their progress meeting turnaround time benchmarks;
- Ensure their volume is level-loaded; and
- Track by the hour how many tests are coming in and completed, the case study notes.
The hc1 customer-relationship management (CRM) dashboard (above) provides an easy-to-navigate interface for tracking multiple benchmarks and key workflows for clinical laboratories and healthcare providers. (Image copyright: hc1.)
“The first step was to integrate our LIS [laboratory information system], and our timekeeping, call center metrics, and bench scheduling tools, into the hc1 CRM solution we had installed,” stated Tamara Nelson, Lean Master Black Belt at SQL. “Once that was accomplished, we could build actionable reports to determine where to focus our process improvement efforts.
“Now we can look at high-level trends in lab productivity,” noted Nelson. “We can also drill down to look at every process in our lab by hour, shift, discipline, instrument, and employee to compare time periods and other factors.”
According to the case study about Sonora Quest Laboratories, after its activation of the healthcare CRM, SQL reduced time spent pulling daily performance reports from about five hours per day to just 45 minutes a day. This increased overall employee efficiency by 85%.
SQL’s use of the CRM now makes it possible to:
- Provide real-time financial and operation trend analysis to key stakeholders;
- Use live dashboard and reports to review and manage TAT (turn-around time) benchmarks, utilization, reimbursements, volume, and productivity;
- Track employee productivity across departments to drive accountability; and
- Broadcast reports to immediately notify key stakeholders of any risks, missed benchmarks, or red flags.
Better Way for Clinical Laboratories to Track Client Interactions
Another medical laboratory that benefitted from implementing a laboratory-specific CRM is Incyte Diagnostics of Spokane Valley, Washington. Founded in 1957 by pathologists, Incyte provides anatomic pathology services throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Incyte needed a way to consolidate data coming from the multiple systems used to manage its sales process and payer information. The different systems created a disconnect between departments and, as structured, could only deliver a few real-time insights into volume or revenue shifts, client account activity, marketing campaigns, or sales activities.
Having received 35,000 e-mails from his sales team during the previous two years, Incyte’s Chief Marketing Officer Nate Koenig knew he had to find a better way to track client interactions.
“We needed a better understanding of what was taking place within our clients’ hospitals. To grow, we had to improve. That’s where the CRM solution we selected proved invaluable,” stated Koenig in a case study detailing how Incyte found a solution to tedious workflows and disorganized information tracking.
After adopting a healthcare CRM, Incyte could:
- Help sales reps gain more field time;
- Centralize client information;
- Track sales activities;
- Properly store data; and
- Gain access to real-time analytics.
Anatomic Pathology Lab Exceeded Production Goals and Customer Expectations
According to the case study, by eliminating data silos and streamlining sales operations Incyte was able to:
- Exceed its sales growth goal in 2016 by 107%;
- Retain 99.51% of current business;
- Reduce the overall workload of the client services team 6.25%; and
- Gain 32 additional days of field time for its 17 sales reps.
Both Sonora Quest Laboratories and Incyte, Inc., are examples of how innovative medical laboratories are using informatics to meet the challenges of declining revenue and the need to sustain a high level of customer service. In today’s connected world, those labs that are first to achieve useful integration of their LIS with a CRM will enjoy competitive advantage.
Surviving in this challenging environment means clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups must unlock the power of data informatics to improve their financial performance and better serve providers and patients. To help laboratory leaders reach these goals, The Dark Report recently published a white paper titled, “3 Critical Rules for Surviving in 2017: Your Medical Laboratory’s Guide to Thriving in Today’s Healthcare Landscape.”
This essential resource demonstrates how a laboratory-specific CRM enables medical laboratories to not just survive, but to thrive in today’s healthcare environment, while providing added value to healthcare consumers and providers.
Get your copy of this important asset by clicking on this link. Or, copy this URL into your browser: https://ddaily.wpengine.com/whitepaper/3-critical-rules-for-surviving-in-2017-your-medical-laboratorys-guide-to-thriving-in-todays-healthcare-landscape.
—Andrea Downing Peck
Related Information:
3 Critical Rules for Surviving in 2017: Your Medical Laboratory’s Guide to Surviving in Today’s Healthcare Landscape
How Incyte Dx Eliminated Data Silos and Streamlined Operations to Exceed Sales Growth Targets by 107%
How Sonora Quest Labs Eliminated 4 Hours a Day in Performance Report Work
Clinical Laboratories Turn to Healthcare-Focused CRM to Optimize Operations and Increase Market Share, Despite Decreasing Reimbursement
More Clinical Pathology Laboratories Use Middleware for Business Intelligence and Lab-specific Customer Relationship Management
Jun 7, 2017 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Management & Operations
Aging populations and increase in chronic disease fuel worldwide growth in tele-ICU care models that improve patient outcomes, reduce length of ICU stays, and save hospitals money, according to a study
There’s an interesting trend in healthcare that may prove beneficial to clinical pathologists and medical laboratory scientists. It is increased use by hospitals of remotely-monitored intensive care units (ICUs), which creates the opportunity for clinical laboratory specialists to remotely collaborate with their colleagues in real time.
This new approach in how hospitals alter how they monitor their patients’ care and organize their intensive care units is dubbed Tele-ICU. The technology uses “an off-site command center in which a critical care team [made up of intensivists and critical care nurses] is connected with patients in distant ICUs to exchange health information through real-time audio, visual, and electronic means,” according to a study published by AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association) that sought to identify the “possible barriers to broader adoption.”
This approach to emergency care from a distance employs telemedicine technology and has the potential to impact how in-house medical laboratories provide clinical testing services to hospital physicians.
Tele-ICU Gaining Foothold in Healthcare
Tele-ICUs are making speedy inroads into hospitals and healthcare systems. According to a statistic provided to Healthcare Dive by Advanced ICU Care, a provider of remote ICU monitoring services, an estimated 15% to 20% of hospitals currently use tele-ICU programs.
The use of this “second set of eyes” in ICUs is expected to grow. It is encouraged by an increasing number of studies showing:
- Improved patient outcomes;
- Reduced length of ICU stays; and
- Cost savings.
A Global Market Insights report predicts the tele-ICU market will reach $5 billion in 2023. That’s more than four times 2015’s $1.2 billion level. The rise, the report states, will be fueled by an increase in aging populations and chronic conditions such as cancer, neurological disorders, and other chronic diseases.
The graphic above illustrates the wide range of telehealth services available to hospitals for remote critical and in-home ambulatory care. To remain competitive, medical laboratories not yet engaged in providing testing services to remote care programs will need to adopt the technology. (Image copyright: Philips.)
Intermountain Healthcare’s TeleCritical Care program has paid dividends for the not-for-profit health system. Since 2014, Intermountain has introduced tele-ICUs in 12 of its 22 hospitals that have ICUs, and in five non-system hospitals. A pilot project has expanded the program to two rural critical access hospitals that do not have ICUs. Five more rural hospitals are also expected to join Intermountain Healthcare’s tele-ICU program.
“There’s a tremendous amount we can do from this location without being literally present,” William Beninati, MD, Medical Director for TeleCritical Care at Intermountain Healthcare, stated in a Healthcare Dive article.
Intermountain Healthcare’s analysis of 6,500 of its patients indicates tele-ICU implementation has enabled its community hospitals to treat patients with more complex cases and reduce mortality by 33%. An initial cost analysis was equally favorable, with a $4.4 million decrease in the cost of care provided and a $3.3 million decrease in reimbursement amounts.
“We’re seeing a rapid return on investment on a roughly one-year timeframe,” Beninati told Healthcare Dive.
Helping Hospitals Thrive in Value-based Environments
A study published in CHEST Journal in February 2017 by UMass Memorial Medical Center supports the argument for tele-ICU’s financial benefits. According to a Philips press release announcing the UMass Memorial study results, the researchers found the Philips telehealth eICU Program with centralized bed management control increased case volume by up to 44% and improved contribution margins by up to 665%, or $52.7 million.
Philips’ eICU telehealth technology (above) combines A/V technology, predictive analytics, data visualization, and advanced reporting capabilities to deliver critical information to caregivers at remote locations. (Photo copyright: Philips.)
Other investigations have recognized the value intensivist-centric models can play in improved patient outcomes, such as this 2014 HIMSS study, which compared ICU length-of-stay findings among three primary studies of tele-ICU use that were published from 2009 to 2014. The analysis found tele-ICU programs improved patient outcomes, particularly length of stays (from 6.9 days pre-intervention to 4.2 days post-intervention). And there was “strong evidence” that secondary outcomes such as ICU mortality and hospital mortality also decreased as a result of tele-ICU use.
“An ICU bed costs approximately $2 million to build, and this study demonstrates a significant increase in case volume by better utilizing existing resources,” said Tom Zajac, Chief Executive Officer and Business Leader, Population Health Management, Philips, in the Philips press release. “This shift enables care for expanding populations without having to build and staff additional ICU beds, thus helping hospitals thrive in a value-based care environment.”
Alignment of Attitudes Key to Tele-ICU Success
In a Healthcare Dive article, Lou Silverman, CEO of Advanced ICU Care, a provider of tele-ICU services, said the role of a tele-ICU differs based on a hospital’s staffing.
“If intensivists are internally staffed by the hospital, tele-ICU provides a second set of eyes—an additional layer of patient safety in partnership with the bedside team,” Silverman noted. “When intensivists are not readily present, tele-intensivists take a more active role directing patient care, including intervening in urgent situations.”
However, the physician who led the UMass study argues that successful tele-ICU programs requires an alignment of attitudes as well as technology. Craig M. Lilly, MD, Director of the eICU program at UMass Memorial Medical Center, says healthcare providers at the bedside, and those overseeing the ICU from a distance, must communicate well and collaborate on both ends of the telemedicine platform.
“If you apply the technology the way it was designed [to be applied], it can make a difference,” Lilly told mHealthIntelligence. “But if you don’t have collaboration, it’s not going to work. Then you have … relative antagonism.”
As Dark Daily has previously noted, anatomic pathology laboratories were among the first to adopt remote telemedicine models though the use of whole-slide imaging and digital pathology services. As tele-ICU becomes more prevalent, medical laboratories will have the opportunity to use their access to real-time patient lab test data to help the clinicians in tele-ICU centers better manage patient care. This would also be an opportunity for pro-active clinical pathologists to step up with consultative services that contribute to improving patient outcomes.
—Andrea Downing Peck
Related Information:
How Tele-ICUs are Giving Hospitals a Boost
Reducing ICU Length of Stay: The Effect of Tele-ICU Market Size
Tele-Intensive Care
ICU Telemedicine Program Financial Outcomes
Telemedicine Success Requires an Alignment of Incentives (and Attitudes)
New Study Demonstrates Improved Patient Flow and Financial Benefits of Philips eICU Program for Managing Critical Care Populations
Study: Tele-ICU Programs Improve Care While Providing Cost Savings
Survey Reveals US Consumers Choosing PCPs Based on Access to Telehealth Services; Clinical Laboratories Can Capitalize on This Trend
From Micro-hospitals to Mobile ERs: New Models of Healthcare Create Challenges and Opportunities for Pathologists and Medical Laboratories
Wal-Mart Developing Telemedicine Clinics in Selected Stores
Growing Cost of Telemedicine, Telepathology, and Medical Data Transmissions Is a Budget-Buster in Oklahoma
International Telemedicine Gains Momentum, Opening New Markets for Pathologists and Other Specialists
Mar 27, 2017 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
CMS Director speaks at ACLA meeting; acknowledges that labs are alerting the agency to problems with Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) private payer market reporting, but did not say whether a delay in implementing either reporting or lab test fee cuts would be possible
WASHINGTON, DC—Last week, it was symbolic that, as members of the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) assembled for their annual meeting, members of the House of Representatives were preparing to vote on the first of several bills intended to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act.
The symbolism comes from the fact that the nation’s medical laboratories and the United States Congress find themselves at major crossroad. For medical laboratories, the issue is the substantial cuts to Medicare Part B clinical laboratory test fees that are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2018. Predicted by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to be a total cut of $400 million in 2018 alone, many expect these Medicare fee cuts to be the single most financially-disruptive event to hit the medical laboratory profession in 25 years.
There’s a similar make-or-break issue unfolding in Congress. Republicans in the House and Senate are caught up in battles to design and pass a series of bills intended to “repeal and replace” the ACA. At their respective crossroads, it remains unclear which path forward each group will follow. (more…)
Mar 10, 2017 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
Examples already exist of manufacturers agreeing to refund payments if their therapeutic drugs don’t benefit patients; Medical laboratories with proprietary tests may find this strategy effective at guaranteeing the clinical utility of their assays
If their medical devices, medical laboratory tests, or prescription drugs are not effective, will payers, patients, and doctors get refunds from the manufacturers of these products? Some experts predict that the increased emphasis on improved patient outcomes, and the need for healthcare enterprises to back up the clinical value of their services, could lead to money-back guarantees and reimbursements for treatment therapies.
Offering a refund for services if the patient does not benefit is a powerful and compelling way for a company to call attention to its confidence level in its products and services. (more…)
Feb 27, 2017 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Laboratory Testing, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
The DxMA Summit’s agenda will complement EWC’s and will explore disruptive technologies likely to be of great interest to medical laboratory leaders and pathology groups
Cybersecurity, wearable technology, and social media are the primary trends facing in vitro diagnostics (IVD) manufacturers and clinical laboratories.
That’s according to Debra Harrsch, President-elect of the Diagnostics Marketing Association (DxMA), a self-funded organization devoted to helping diagnostic marketing professionals stay abreast of industry trends and effectively navigate the changing legal, regulatory, and technology landscape.
DxMA will be holding its annual Global Marketing Summit April 30-May 1 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel on Canal Street. Coincidentally, the 2017 Executive War College (EWC) will takes place in the same venue, May 2-3, directly following the DxMA summit. (more…)
Feb 20, 2017 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers may be overlooking ways that sales teams can add strategic value
As of January 1, 2018, the value of a top-performing clinical laboratory sales professional will increase because, on that date, labs will see a reduction in Medicare Part B clinical laboratory test prices as mandated by the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) of 2014.
As these Medicare price cuts become effective, clinical laboratories and hospital lab outreach programs across the United States will need their lab sales representatives to bring in new client accounts that can generate additional revenue to offset the decrease in Medicare lab test reimbursements.
It was to recognize these laboratory sales professionals that The Dark Report organized the National Lab Sales Excellence Award in 2016. These new national sales awards were unveiled at the Executive War College (EWC) in New Orleans on April 26-27, 2016, and will return again at the 2017 EWC May 2-3. (more…)
