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.
Mount Sinai Health System Sells Outreach Lab to LabCorp
ANOTHER ACADEMIC MEDICAL CENTER decided to cash in on the value of its outreach lab. On Jan. 10, Laboratory Corporation of America announced it would acquire the lab outreach business of Mount Sinai Health System of New York City. Terms of the transaction and purchase price were not disclosed. The…
First CAP 15189 Accreditation for a Children’s Hospital Lab
CEO SUMMARY: It’s now official. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is the first children’s hospital to earn accreditation to ISO 15189 under the College of American Pathologists. What is more interesting, however, is how lab leadership used the quality management system of ISO 15…
Meet the Medical Technologist Who Does Daily Rounds in the Hospital
TO MAKE THE TRANSITION FROM VOLUME TO VALUE, pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists are beginning to leave the four walls of their labs to engage clinicians in ways that add value to the lab tests performed on their patients. That’s exactly what one medical technologist is doing in a comm…
Cepheid, Sequenom Acquisitions Further Consolidate Lab Testing
TWO ACQUISITIONS FURTHER consolidated the clinical laboratory testing industry in recent weeks. The acquired companies were Sequenom and Cepheid. Sequenom went first. On July 27, Laboratory Corporation of America announced an agreement to acquire …
McKesson, Change Healthcare Decide to Create New Company
ACROSS THE NATION, the hundreds of pathology groups and clinical labs that use McKesson Technology Solutions for their billing and collections, along with labs that use the Advanced Diagnostics Solutions group, should pay attention to a major corporate deal announced…
Accumen Acquires Chi To Beef Up Lab Consulting
CEO SUMMARY: Two different business models of clinical laboratory consulting have now been brought together. Chi consultants have long focused on analytics and improving outreach performance, among other areas of lab performance. By contrast, Accumen’s business model is nontradition…
How Mentors Can Best Train Young Lab Leaders
CEO SUMMARY: Mentoring will be the theme of a special learning track at this year’s Executive War College. Two nationally-respected experts on mentoring and leadership development will work with participating lab mentors and mentorees to help them advance their mentoring relationship. A…
Benchmarking with the Best To Be a World Class Laboratory
CEO SUMMARY: This fourth installment of this special series about the laboratory value pyramid introduces “Level Four: Use Benchmarks to Achieve Best-in-Class.” This is the highest level of the four level pyramid. When a lab organization performs at this level, it will be deliver…
Gearing Up the Laboratory to Exceed Expectations of External Customers
CEO SUMMARY: This is the third installment of THE DARK REPORT’S description of the Laboratory Value Pyramid. It describes “Level Three: Deliver Value that Exceeds Expectations.” This is the level where the laboratory organization now shifts its emphasis from internal operation of…
Level Two of Value Pyramid Defines Internal Benchmarks
CEO SUMMARY: In this second installment of our series on the laboratory value pyramid, we introduce “Level Two: Establish and Meet Standards of Value.” This second level continues the lab’s focus on its internal operations and activities. The goal is for the lab to develop the working cultu…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 12 – August 25, 2025
In an exclusive interview, a laboratory industry M&A specialist discusses what’s driving lab outreach sales to national lab companies. Also, The Dark Report analyzes ways in which pathology and clinical labs can profitably partner with pharmaceutical companies.
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.