Apr 22, 2015 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Hospital-based pathologists may soon gain a new diagnostic assay that could prove effective in detecting hospital-acquired infections more quickly and more accurately than with existing rapid molecular diagnostic tests
Imagine a diagnostic assay designed for hospital settings that uses a specimen of the patient’s breath, can be performed at the bedside, and can detect early-stage infections within two hours of onset. Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will recognize that a diagnostic test such as this could play a big role in helping hospitals reduce hospital-acquired infections (HAI).
That’s just one application that Madison, Wisconsin-based Isomark has for the new breath analyzer test it is developing. The company says that its diagnostic test is capable of detecting early metabolism and immune system changes based on reading carbon dioxide (CO2) in a patient’s breath.
Canary Could Affect Volume of Clinical Laboratory Specimens
The Isomark Canary Breath Analyzer test (Canary) was specifically designed to identify infections before they have a chance to overwhelm the patient’s immune system. Canary has so many potential uses for identifying infection early that, if the technology were cleared for clinical use, medical laboratories could eventually see a significant reduction in the volume of patient specimens coming into the microbiology department. (more…)
May 10, 2013 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Today, cheap and accurate mechanical pipettes are used by clinical pathology laboratories, although mouth pipetting, a dangerous medical lab practice, is still used in developing nations
Mouth pipetting was the topic of a recent blog published by Body Horrors. The blogger recalled a time when clinical laboratory professionals routinely mouth pipetted specimens.
Mouth pipetting is the practice of using one’s mouth to suck a desired volume of a medical laboratory specimen–blood, urine, cell cultures and other microbial stews–into an open-ended tube, using the reduced air pressure created by sucking to hold the specimen in place while moving it to another vessel. (more…)
Mar 26, 2012 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
Where hospital margins to be squeezed, that would place hospital laboratories under greater budget constraints
Hospitals are honing in on Medicare’s new value-based purchasing program quality metrics in an effort to improve patient care—and earn reimbursement rewards. Clinical laboratory managers and pathologists will want to track implementation of this program, because it is one further step forward in Medicare’s plan to move away from fee-for-service reimbursement.
As part of its effort to drive quality improvement at U.S. hospitals, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued final rules in 2011 for the first year of its Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program (HVBP). The program is a pay-for-performance initiative that begins in fiscal 2013. Modern Healthcare reported on this story.
“[The HVBP structure] has been very eye-opening to a lot of people because we are not used to being compared that way,” observed Jeff Costello. He is Chief Financial Officer at Memorial Hospital & Health System in South Bend, Indiana. This 526-bed institution is on the latest Thomson Reuters’ 100 Top Hospitals list.
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Feb 13, 2012 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Vapor-based fumigant system could prove useful in disinfecting microbiology labs, clinical labs, and histology labs
There’s a new technology that bears great promise for improving existing methods of disinfecting hospital rooms and health facilities, including clinical laboratories. This pioneering work was developed as part of a collaboration involving infection control expert Dick Zoutman, M.D., FRCPC, who is affiliated with Queen’s University of Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
This technology is a vapor-based fumigant system and is coming to market with the name AsepticSure. It will be sold by Medizone International, Inc.. The invention makes a strong argument for changing the way hospital rooms and other healthcare facilities are disinfected. (more…)
Aug 1, 2011 | Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
Medicaid policy takes effect on July 1, 2012, and mirrors existing Medicare policy
Medicare was the first government program to announce that it would not reimburse hospitals for certain hospital-acquired conditions. Pathologists will be interested to learn that the Medicaid program is now prepared to institute a similar non-reimbursement policy. This fulfills a Dark Daily prediction that other government and private health programs would copy this Medicare policy.
As of July 1, 2012, Medicaid will no longer reimburse hospitals for treatment of certain hospital-acquired conditions (HAC). The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published its final rule on June 6th as a way of aligning Medicaid’s HAC policies with those of the Medicare program. The new Medicaid HAC rule becomes a baseline policy on top of which States can still attach their own HAC reimbursement restrictions.
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