Feb 18, 2015 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Evidence is emerging that medical laboratories using the ‘daily management’ approach can outperform other labs, even those using Lean methods
Clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups are information-rich environments. Yet, there is irony in the fact that—in response to financial pressures and incentives to improve the quality of medical laboratory testing services—most of the nation’s clinical labs cannot tap that rich vein of information to support performance improvement goals.
Those financial pressures have shrunk lab budgets and caused price cuts to medical laboratory test prices. These two factors are behind the trend of clinical labs and pathology groups buying middleware solutions that produce real-time data feeds on all aspects of lab operations, from phlebotomy and specimen transport, to accessioning, testing, reporting, client services monitoring, and billing/collections. (more…)
Sep 8, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
Blame it on shrinking hospital budgets and reduced lab testing prices; successful labs are using Lean, Six Sigma, and process improvement to reduce expenses and boost quality
Topic number one at clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups across the nation is cost-cutting, for two reasons. First, it is budget time at hospitals and labs are being told to aggressively reduce their costs in 2015. Second, health insurers are paying less for medical lab testing.
Simply said, labs are experiencing one of the toughest financial squeezes in two decades. Dark Daily has written about the underlying trends responsible for this financial pressure. Nationally, hospital inpatient admissions are down at the same time that hospitals are being paid less per inpatient. In response, hospitals are asking all clinical departments—including their clinical laboratories—to prune staff and cut budgets for 2015. (more…)
Jun 2, 2014 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Real-time data feeds give managers a view on turnaround time, physician ordering patterns, staffing levels, workload, specimen quality, and instrument performance
Financial pressures are intensifying at the nation’s clinical laboratories. This is particularly true of the labs serving hospitals and health systems. Declining inpatient volume and less revenue per inpatient admission are reasons why hospital lab budgets are shrinking.
These trends mean clinical lab administrators and pathologists are being asked to do more with less. To meet this challenge, many lab organizations are acquiring real-time analysis tools and management dashboard systems to help managers identify opportunities to slash lab expenses, while boosting productivity and client satisfaction. (more…)
Oct 30, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Extraneous tissue cross-contamination found in all participating pathology laboratories Cross-tissue contamination, regardless of specimen volume or how frequently reagents were changed
Pathologists and histotechnologists have long known that traditional methods of processing tissue for diagnosis have the potential to cross-contaminate human biopsy specimens. This risk to patient safety and diagnostic accuracy was accepted over the decades because of the limitations of technology and inability to more precisely measure the performance of individual work processes in the histology laboratory.
In recent years, two things have begun to change this long-standing status quo in medical laboratories. These developments now make it possible to more accurately measure the performance of histology work processes. In turn, this allows an understanding of the true rate of errors that happen from the time a human biopsy specimen arrives in the anatomic pathology laboratory until the completed slides are ready to be diagnosed by a pathologist. (more…)
Oct 7, 2013 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
A sold-out audience gathered at the seventh annual Lab Quality Confab and heard speakers from the nation’s most innovative medical laboratories share case studies about success in cutting lab expenses and improving quality
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA—At a time when medical laboratories in the United States are experiencing significant financial challenges, there was plenty of guarded optimism among the clinical laboratory managers and pathologists who gathered in this famous city last week for the seventh annual Lab Quality Confab.
One reason for this optimism is that speakers and attendees at this sold-out meeting are the nation’s leading experts in the use of Lean, Six Sigma, and process improvement methods in medical laboratories and pathology groups. They know how to cut lab costs while maintaining quality and boosting the productivity of the lab’s staff and automated systems. (more…)
