Nov 2, 2009 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Pre-analytical products, automated systems, and Lean Six Sigma combined to improve outcomes
In today’s era of automation and Lean Six Sigma processes in laboratory medicine, the manual urinalysis test may be ready for a major makeover. Such a development would be welcome because, in the typical American hospital, the clinical laboratory performs an average of 120 urinalyses per day.
Some clinical laboratory managers consider it counterintuitive that—during a period of automation and implementation of Lean Six Sigma processes—a diagnostic tool as important and ubiquitous as urinalysis would not be perfectly methodized. But that is frequently the case. In many clinical laboratories, the processes utilized for this line of lab tests are often outmoded, inefficient, and can even lead to erroneous results.
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Oct 30, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Guest Commentary by: Mark Graban
Clinical laboratory professionals and leaders should be reminded that their accountability for quality and patient safety does not end at the instrument or the microscope—at least from the general public’s perception and the needs of patients.
This summer, I was walking through Boston Common and saw a woman with a homemade sign with a message about patient safety. I stopped and asked about her sign. She reminded me it was July 25, the annual observance of National Patient Safety Day.
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Oct 23, 2009 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News
Management Tool Contributes to More Collected Revenue, Higher Sales Prices
Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) is hitting the radar screen at the nation’s best-managed clinical laboratories. That’s because shrinking reimbursement makes it imperative for clinical labs and pathology groups to collect every dollar legally due for the lab testing services they provide. RCM is a proven management tool for reducing unpaid claims and unlocking more productivity in the coding/billing/collections process.
“Revenue Cycle Management for laboratories encompasses all the administrative and management functions that contribute to the capture, and collection of revenue associated with lab testing services,” observed Lale White, CEO of Xifin, Inc. of San Diego, California. White has been an acknowledged national expert in laboratory coding, billing, and collections for more than two decades.
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Oct 22, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Labs Must Report Privacy Breaches of 500 or More to the Media
Call it HITECH collides with HIPAA! Most pathologists and lab executives know that passage of the HITECH Act was the part of 2009’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also referred to as “ARRA” or the “stimulus bill”). HITECH provides incentives for the expanded use of electronic health records by physicians and other providers.
But what is lesser known is how the HITECH Act creates new legal obligations of covered entities and business associates under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA). These new legal mandates are designed to protect the privacy and security of the patient. They require clinical laboratories and all providers to take specific actions whenever patient privacy is breached.
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Oct 20, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
New diagnostic protocols that use lactic acid test cut deaths from sepsis
Laboratory testing plays a key role in a new diagnostic protocol for sepsis that is saving lives at hospitals operated by Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Tennessee. Since implementation of this new sepsis protocol, patient outcomes have improved significantly.
Leadership at Methodist North Hospital (MNH) decided to adopt the protocol after reading a study by Emanuel Rivers, M.D., Ph.D., of Henry Ford Medical Center, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, that establishes criteria for identifying these patients.
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