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

May 2012

CLIA’s Catch-22 Involving Proficiency Testing

THERE’S A REGULATORY TRAP awaiting the unwary laboratory organization. It involves language in CLIA rules for proficiency testing (PT). All medical directors and lab administrators will want to fully understand the implications of what appears to be an emerging trend in CLIA laboratory enforcement. In recent years, an ever-greater number of labs have unwittingly found …

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Executive War College Looks at Threats to Lab Industry

CEO SUMMARY: Taken collectively, the speakers at the opening session of the 17th Annual Executive War College on Lab and Pathology Management had a powerful message to the nearly 700 attendees. After years of slow movement, a rapid transformation of the American healthcare system is about to unfold. There will be opportunities for clinical labs …

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Inadvertent PT “Errors” Trigger CLIA Sanctions

CEO SUMMARY: Despite taking appropriate steps to complete proficiency testing (PT), in recent years an unknown number of labs were determined to be in violation of CLIA requirements. Federal regulators are enforcing penalties ranging from suspension of the labs’ licenses to transition to new lab ownership for two years. A lawyer involved in several of …

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Sarasota Hospital Lab Reduces Number of Hemolyzed Specimens

CEO SUMMARY: Seeking to improve turnaround time for stat lab tests, the laboratory at Sarasota Memorial Health Care System identified high rates of hemolysis as the chief reason for less than ideal TAT. Because 32% of blood draws were handled by the lab’s phlebotomy staff while 68% of blood draws were performed by nurses and …

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Patient Service Center Theft Highlights Labs’ Need to Protect Paper Records

LABS PUT SO MUCH EFFORT INTO SECURING electronic health records, that it’s easy to overlook the need to protect paper records. St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton, California, learned this lesson the hard way recently when thieves stole more than 700 paper records from one of the hospital’s 23 patient service centers (PSC). The theft …

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Magnets to Move Tubes on ARUP’s Testing Line

CEO SUMMARY: In Salt Lake City, Utah, work is underway to pioneer use of an electro-magnetic conveyor system to automate the movement of large volumes of lab test specimens throughout the testing facility of ARUP Laboratories. Within two years, this new lab automation technology could allow the reference lab to accommodate a 60% increase in …

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May 14, 2012 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

Mayo Clinic is taking steps to more fully integrate its laboratory informatics. In a press release dated April 27, 2012, it stated that it had completed a multi- year implementation of a new laboratory information system (LIS). The new LIS supports both the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and Mayo Medical Laboratories (MML) and …

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