Laboratory Management
Laboratory management in today’s clinical lab industry is changing rapidly and facing entirely new challenges. One problem is the lack of upcoming younger lab managers, as the retirements of baby boomer pathologists, medical technologists and lab scientists are in the near future. These individuals make up the largest proportion of supervisors, managers, and lab administrators working in labs today.
As they retire, every clinical lab and pathology group needs to have the next generation of leaders ready to step up and assume responsibilities. But, across the lab industry, there are limited opportunities for every lab’s brightest up-and-comers to get the regular management development opportunities that are common among Fortune 500 companies. The Dark Intelligence Group has called for the establishment of a mentoring program to help overcome this problem.
At the same time, downward pressure on reimbursements and mounting competition have created an environment that requires much more effort for a medical lab to grow and thrive.
Legislation, including the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) of 2009 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010, have placed significant demands on medical laboratories and healthcare providers to improve internal efficiency even while offering more services for less money. This pressure to “do more with less” is further compounded by the need to deliver increasingly personalized client service to retain and win clients.
With the era of fee-for-service medicine coming to a close, every clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology organization needs a strategy for getting paid, as new reimbursement models that support patient-centric care will make up a larger portion of lab revenues.
The challenge for every clinical laboratory manager is to understand how to evolve from a business model that is accession-centric or volume-centric to one that is patient-centric.
Many clinical laboratories today are developing data repositories to logically link all transactional and other information about a patient. These repositories allow physicians to see all relevant information, identify trends, and provide better care as a result, enabling labs to provide greater value to their customers, patients and payers, thus creating more value and becoming more patient-centric.
Labcorp Selects Oracle Cerner to Streamline Lab Workflows
THERE IS A UNIQUE CORPORATE COLLABORATION unfolding that involves Labcorp and Oracle Cerner. Announced in November, Labcorp will use Oracle Cerner’s lab information systems to update clinical laboratory workflow processes and support the sharing of patient data across healthcare organ…
National Lab Says It Will Help with Supply Chain Services
RECOGNIZING THAT SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES are troublesome to some of its clinical laboratory customers, one national lab company has announced it would like to help solve those issues. In September, Quest Diagnostics issued a press release describing …
Use Histology Laboratory Data to Illustrate Specimen ‘Life Cycle’
BECAUSE OF THE CHALLENGING LABOR MARKET, pathology labs need ways to boost staff productivity. To help identify workflow bottlenecks, one approach is to examine lab data and encourage bench teams to think holistically about specimen movement in the lab. [caption id=”attachment_36932″ align=”alignl…
Eight Macro Trends for Clinical Labs in 2023
CEO SUMMARY: Laboratory administrators and pathologists will want to carefully study eight important trends that will guide their business strategies in 2023. Many of these macro trends center on financial and operational difficulties and ways to steer around these obstacles. Anothe…
How Consumers Shape Modern Laboratory Outreach
CEO SUMMARY: Each of the different generations engaging with clinical laboratory outreach programs brings their own set of expectations to a blood draw. Innovative hospital lab outreach programs should serve these differences by offering multiple options to provide appointment conve…
2022’s Top 10 Lab Stories Confirm Challenging Times
CEO SUMMARY: There are valuable insights to be gleaned from The Dark Report’s “Top 10 Lab Industry Stories for 2022.” Several of this year’s story picks involve external forces reshaping healthcare in the United States in profound ways. Other story picks for 2022 illustrate …
Analytics Lets Labs Offset Staffing Woes
CEO SUMMARY: For hospital laboratories confronting worker shortages, data analytics can be useful for improving workflows and determining effective staffing levels. This information can also induce changes that may improve employee morale. Two experts discuss three analytics reports…
Use This Five-Step Process to Implement a New LIS
CEO SUMMARY: Rolling out a new laboratory information system (LIS) is a costly, time-consuming project. One expert outlines five steps that clinical labs can take to alleviate pressures while ensuring the right people are onboard to help the endeavor move forward. Among the steps is…
Florida Hospital Laboratory Team Prepared before Hurricane Ian
With Hurricane Ian approaching the west coast of Florida on Sept. 28, hospital laboratories in the predicted path scrambled to be ready for the worst. That was true at Tampa General Hospital, where the hospital’s clinical lab team went on high alert. …
U.S. Hospitals Will Lose Billions of Dollars in 2022
CEO SUMMARY: Hospitals and health systems in most regions of the United States are reporting substantial losses, both in patient care and in the value of their investment portfolios. This is inauspicious for the clinical laboratories operated by these hospitals. Hospital-bas…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXI, No. 6 – April 29, 2024
Laboratory managers will want to note that The Dark Report itself was targeted by the fraudsters who hit Change Health in a cyberattack. Also, one lab has some innovative methods of combatting the chronic staffing shortage, including hiring college graduates and students.
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