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.
Best Practices for Labs to Secure MT Program Funds
CEO SUMMARY: In securing federal funds for a new MT training center, ARUP Labs and the University of Utah took steps that clinical labs can follow for their own project financing. Among the key lessons is the need to showcase the work a lab does within a community to politicians and…
Laboratories Can Find Value in Use of Leftover Samples
CEO SUMMARY: After testing on behalf of patients, there are often leftover samples. One company developed a platform to enable life science customers to access the samples and associated diagnostic data for research purposes. For clinical labs, the leftover samples provide an opport…
How Histology Can Better Communicate with Physicians
CEO SUMMARY: When ordering physicians or pathologists take issue with histology processes, it’s a sign that change is needed somewhere along the line. At American Oncology Network, the resulting communication often centers on bringing greater clarity to the doctors as to how sampl…
ARUP Laboratories and University of Utah Create MT Training Center
CEO SUMMARY: To help resolve the ongoing shortage of MTs and MLSs, ARUP Laboratories and the University of Utah’s Medical Laboratory Sciences Division took a novel approach to secure funding for a new laboratory scientist training center. They worked with their congressional repre…
Pandemic Helped Lab with Hospital Leaders
CEO SUMMARY: Growth at Atrium Health during the COVID-19 pandemic elevated its clinical laboratory’s profile with medical leaders and health system administrators. What followed was a new spirit of collaboration that led to lab involvement in cost savings efforts, such as improved…
Joint Commission Will Not Accept COLA Accreditation
CEO SUMMARY: This may be a first in the 40-year history of CLIA accreditation of clinical laboratories. The Joint Commission (TJC) announced it will no longer recognize COLA’s laboratory accreditation program within “TJC-accredited facilities,” effective Jan 1, 2023. COLA-accredited labs …
What’s Behind Joint Commission Move to Not Accept COLA Labs?
DURING THE NEXT TWO YEARS, a substantial number of hospitals and healthcare facilities will need to respond to The Joint Commission’s (TJC) decision to no longer recognize CLIA accreditations issued by COLA in “TJC-accredited facilities.” In the 30-year history of the current C…
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…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 6 – April 21, 2025
Now that a federal judge has vacated the FDA’s LDT rule, The Dark Report analyzes the judgement and notes the various steps the FDA could take in response. Also, lab testing at pharmacies is proving to be less successful than was once anticipated.
See the full table of contentsHow Much Laboratory Business Intelligence Have You Missed?
Lab leaders rely on THE DARK REPORT for actionable intelligence on important developments in the business of laboratory testing. Maximize the money you make-and the money you keep! Best of all, it is released every three weeks!
Sign up for TDR Insider
Join the Dark Intelligence Group FREE and get TDR Insider FREE!
Never miss a single update on the issues that matter to you and your business.