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

Month: May 2011

May 23, 2011 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

Late Breaking Lab News / By Robert Michel

The first sequencing of the whole human genome back in 2000 unleashed a tidal wave of research and development. Recently, Fast Company Magazine quantified the dollar impact of the Human Genome Project and now says it totals $800 billion! Their reporter communicates this so succinctly that THE DARK REPORT will quote two full paragraphs here: …

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Mid America Clinical Laboratories Discusses Recent Lab Errors

Clinical Laboratory / By Robert Michel

IN FOLLOWING UP THE DISCOVERY of false positive results for Chlamydia tests it had performed on a limited number of patients, Mid America Clinical Laboratories (MACL) found itself the subject of news coverage. This included interviews with an irate patient who told one television news reporter that, after receiving a positive result for her Chlamydia …

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Hospital Lab Operations Expert H.W. “Bud” Gandee, Jr., Dies

Clinical Laboratory / By Robert Michel

IN BRENTWOOD, TENNESSEE, the family of H.W. “Bud” Gandee, Jr., reported his death on April 30, at the age of 69. Gandee was an early master of hospital laboratory operations and management. He trained as a medical technologist and had graduate training in immunohematology. Early in his career, he went to work for the original …

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Raising the Bar with Better Phlebotomy Service

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

STEP BY STEP, INNOVATIVE CLINICAL LABORATORIES AND PATHOLOGY GROUPS across the country are deliberately raising the level of service they provide to patients and physicians. In the short term, this often delivers competitive advantage—at least until competing laboratories improve their own service to equal that new benchmark. Raising the bar on service is the theme …

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Labs Learn About ACOs And Medical Homes

Clinical Laboratory Trends / By Robert Michel

IN JUST SEVEN MONTHS, the age of accountable care organizations (ACO) begins. On January 1, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will commence contracting with ACOs. ACOs are one of the major reforms spelled out in the 2,700-page health reform law that President Obama signed into law on March 23, 2010. Thus, …

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Why Toronto Is Site of Global Digital Path Center

Pathology Trends / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: GE Healthcare and Omnyx chose Canada to be the location of their new Global Pathology Innovation Centre of Excellence (PICOE). PICOE’s mission is to demonstrate that digital pathology can improve patient outcomes in a cost-effective manner. GE and Omnyx will use PICOE as a proving ground for the value of digital pathology, while …

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WellSpan’s Lab Designs the “Ideal” Phlebotomy

Lean Six Sigma / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: Lengthy wait times for patients at phlebotomy sites is a common problem for labs across the country. But the laboratory at WellSpan Health System in York, Pennsylvania decided to apply Lean methods to change this situation. Their Lean projects at two pilot patient service centers (PSC) produced a reduction in average waiting times …

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Key Legal, Compliance Issues for Labs Identified

Laboratory Compliance / By Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: It’s a first in the lab industry. In recent weeks, THE DARK REPORT asked the nation’s leading attorneys in clinical lab and anatomic pathology law to identify the most important legal, compliance and managed care issues for 2011 and 2012. Using a consensus methodology, this survey produced a prioritized list of six key …

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Lawyers Provide Insights About Top Legal Concerns

Laboratory Compliance / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: After conducting the first-ever survey of the most important legal, compliance and managed care concerns for clinical labs and pathology groups, THE DARK REPORT asked leading lab industry attorneys who participated in the survey to say a few words about these topics. Here are useful nuggets of wisdom, advice, and insights about the …

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Analysis of Lab Test Error Offers Lessons for Labs

Clinical Laboratory / By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: As happens now and again, a rather typical example of an error in lab testing has made the nightly news in Indianapolis because of one justifiably irate patient who got a false positive test report for an STD. One pathologist, asked by THE DARK REPORT to assess the public information about this episode …

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