Aug 7, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
New strategy by employers and payers encourages patients to choose lower-cost providers, or pay the difference over the price cap
Payers are teaming with employers to steer patients to lower cost providers. Their common goal is to reduce the cost of care without compromising the quality of care delivered to their beneficiaries. This trend may involve clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups, particularly where a lab is seen as a high-cost provider in its service area.
There is credible evidence that patients are willing to consider lower-cost providers. For example, a pilot project aimed a cutting the cost for knee and hip surgeries saved $5.5 million for the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the nation’s largest pension fund and third largest purchaser of healthcare benefits. (more…)
Feb 6, 2013 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
The study found that a Robotic vapor-dispersing device kills and prevents spread of Drug-Resistant Organisms in high-risk patients by 64%
There is a new technology for disinfecting healthcare facilities that is likely to be useful for clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups.
A team at Johns Hopkins University Hospital recently published a study about their institution’s use of hydrogen peroxide vapor to disinfect hospital rooms.
The study was conducted over two and one-half years and involved hospital rooms used by thousands of patients. The goal of this study was to verify the effectiveness of a new robot-like device, known as Bioquell Q-10. This system disperses a hydrogen peroxide vapor to disinfect hospital rooms and was described in a news release issued by Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University Hospital. (more…)
Apr 7, 2012 | 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, Uncategorized
Here’s what you may have missed this week in the clinical lab world. It was a busy week…
Clinical Pathology Laboratories Beef Up Courier and Logistics Services to Deliver More Value to Client Physicians
Published: April 6 2012
Medical laboratories gain competitive advantage by using GPS and real-time vehicle tracking to improve performance of their couriers
Like everything else in laboratory medicine, even such once-simple operational areas as logistics and courier services are becoming complicated—and more expensive. The reasons are familiar to all clinical laboratory managers and pathologists.
For example, sophisticated new diagnostic technologies require that specimens be transported with greater care to ensure that they arrive at the medical laboratory with full integrity.
(more…)
Mar 14, 2012 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Pathologists point out that autopsies consistently reveal doctors make a high rate of diagnostic errors—even with increasingly sophisticated imaging equipment
Pathologists and public health officials say the downward trend in autopsy rates is having far-reaching consequences for healthcare in the United States. The decline in the number of autopsies performed annually comes in spite of extensive literature documenting multiple benefits of the autopsy procedure.
No less an authority than the American Medical Association is calling attention to this situation. The AMA just published a story titled, “Declining Autopsy Rates Affect Medicine and Public Health,” to call attention to the fact that the rate of autopsies has fallen significantly. (more…)
Dec 16, 2011 | Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
More sensitive analytical technologies allow medical laboratories to perform more sophisticated tests using tiny blood specimens on paper
New breakthroughs are creating the opportunity to use “dried blood spot” (DBS) technology in an expanded number of pathology and clinical laboratory testing applications. The latest innovation was developed in the United Kingdom and allows more sophisticated applications of this decades-old screening method.
This new technology was announced in a press release that discussed the new screening method. It was developed by a research team in the UK as a rapid method for simultaneously screening patients for a range of genetic and acquired clinical conditions from a single dried blood spot.
The team consisted of researchers at King’s College of London, together with clinicians from Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. The college and the two hospitals are part of King’s Health Partners, one of the UK’s five Academic Health Sciences Centers.
(more…)
