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.
Solutions to Lab Staffing, Supply, Revenue Problems
CEO SUMMARY: Responding to requests from numerous lab managers, The Dark Report is organizing a one-and-a-half-day program that will come to your city. Workshop leaders are from labs su…
Tactics to Standardize Point-of-Care Testing
CEO SUMMARY: Managing point-of-care testing (POCT) at a multi-hospital health system like Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) often means overseeing thousands of nurses and staff members who perform such tests. Lessons learned at JHM in standardizing POCT, training staff, and maintaining q…
Hospital Lab Outreach Taps On-Demand Testing
CEO SUMMARY: In this case study, clinical laboratory managers from Bryan Health in Nebraska explain how they expanded their lab outreach program to include direct-to-consumer tests. The project involved researching what tests were most appropriate without the need for a physician’…
Might VALID Act Support Be Waning in Congress?
CEO SUMMARY: Just weeks ago, events seemed to indicate that the Verifying Accurate Lea…
Lab’s Anemia Program Brings in New Revenue
CEO SUMMARY: In Philadelphia, Jefferso…
How to Better Recruit Millennial Pathologists
CEO SUMMARY: With the Great Resignation…
Amazon to Close Employee COVID-19 Testing Lab in Ky.
IN A MOVE THAT MAY SURPRISE SOME OBSERVERS, Amazon announced it will close its COVID-19 employee testing laboratory in Hebron, Ky., which is just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. This is the second large COVID-19 clinical laboratory to publ…
California Cancels COVID-19 Test Contract with PerkinElmer
CALIFORNIA HAS SHED MORE LIGHT ON THE DECISION to terminate PerkinElmer’s valuable contract to run the Valencia Branch Laboratory (VBL). The lab has been embroiled in controversy for much of its existence. The state noted that SARS-CoV-2…
New Trends Reshaping Healthcare, Lab Testing
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Labs Use IoT Tools for Specimen Logistics
CEO SUMMARY: Internet of Things (Io…
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?
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