Since 1995, Reliable Business Intelligence for Clinical Laboratories, Pathology Groups and Laboratory Diagnostics

September 2008

Lean Six Sigma Takes Root in Labs & Hospitals

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / By R. Lewis Dark

LAST WEEK, MORE THAN 300 ENTHUSIASTIC LAB AND HOSPITAL PROFESSIONALS from 11 different countries around the globe crowded into Atlanta for the Second Annual Lab Quality Confab. They were gathered to hear the latest success stories and breakthroughs in how laboratories and hospitals are using quality management methods like Lean and Six Sigma. If anyone …

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iTunes Business Model For Digital Path Scans

Digital Pathology / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: If BioImagene’s CEO is to be believed, the company is ready to deliver a digital pathology system that is robust and affordable, even in settings with just two or three pathologists. One key to the BioImagene strategy is “per scan” pricing that avoids the need for upfront capital to acquire its system. Confident …

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Illinois Pathologists Dodge Medicaid CP Payment Cut

Laboratory Billing / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: Pathologists in Illinois acted swiftly to this month’s announcement that the Illinois Medicaid program would cease to directly pay pathologists directly for clinical pathology professional services. The new policy was to take effect on October 1, 2008. As this issue of THE DARK REPORT goes to press, there is breaking news that educational …

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DeVry University, Retail Walk-In Clinics, NeoGenomics, Clarient, Clinical Lab Partners, Patient ID Theft

Clinical Laboratory Trends / By Robert Michel

MED TECH SHORTAGE CAUSES DEVRY UNIVERSITY TO OFFER MT DEGREE IN RESPONSE TO THE GROWING SHORTAGE of skilled lab scientists and medical technologists, DeVry University of Phoenix, Arizona, is offering a new bachelor’s degree program in Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS). What is notable about this development is that DeVry is a private, for-profit organization and …

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Implementation Date For ICD-10 Is Proposed

Laboratory Billing / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: Even though the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 will not be required until 2011, laboratories and pathology groups should have a transition plan in place. ICD-10’s 155,000 seven-digit codes will replace the 17,000 five-digit codes of ICD-9. Because of major changes in the design of ICD-10, extensive training of laboratory coders will be …

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Current Review of CLIA Standards Intended to Address Laboratory PT

Laboratory Compliance / By Robert Michel

EFFORTS ARE UNDER WAY TO REVIEW existing requirements for laboratory certification under the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA). CLIA legislation was a response by Congress to widely-publicized failings in the quality and performance of certain cytology and office laboratories during the 1980s. It has been 16 years since the existing requirements took effect. It …

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Phlebotomy Automation Likely To Be Next Trend

Laboratory Automation, Laboratory Information Systems / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: Here’s a prediction that automation of work processes for phlebotomy, specimen collection, and specimen transport may be the next trend. Unfolding developments in the United States are creating a situation parallel to what was seen in Japanese hospital laboratories more than two decades ago—and led to the world’s first automated solutions for clinical …

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September 29, 2008 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

Late Breaking Lab News / By Robert Michel

It’s been a productive year for Michigan Co-Tenancy Laboratory (MCL) of Ann Arbor, Michigan, which performs reference and esoteric testing for its members. During 2008, four hospital systems have come aboard as new co-tenants. They are: Baptist Health, Montgomery, Alabama; Bay Medical Center, Panama City, Florida; Mercy Memorial Hospital, Monroe, Michigan; and Northeast Alabama Regional …

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Quality Management Systems (QMS) & Healthcare

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / By R. Lewis Dark

OFF THE RADAR SCREEN OF THE LABORATORY INDUSTRY is an evolving management approach that gives unity to the mishmash of quality improvement tools that carry a variety of names, but have several common attributes. Soon lab directors and pathologists will be quite familiar with the concept of the “quality management system” (QMS). Wikipedia describes it …

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Two U.S. Labs Pursuing ISO 15189 Accreditation

Laboratory Management / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: In their first public interviews, the nation’s only two laboratories to seek ISO 15189:2007 accreditation share insights about the process, along with its challenges and benefits. Both laboratories are in the final stages of implementation and expect to earn accreditation by year end. Their achievement will represent the next advance in how laboratories …

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