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.
Quest Diagnostics & SmithKline Release Third Quarter Financials
It appears that 1997 will be kinder to Quest Diagnostics Inc. and SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories (SBCL) than the last three years. Both companies reported improved financial results for third quarter and mixed results for year-to-date. As of press time, …
Lab Market Trends Drive Beckman-Coulter Deal
CEO SUMMARY: Laboratory executives should pay attention to Beckman’s acquisition of Coulter. Together, both companies service a sizeable base of laboratory customers. Any changes to products and services resulting from this merger will affect a large number of clinical laboratories. Obs…
Rural Hospital Succeeds With Lab Outreach Service
CEO SUMMARY: Laboratory administrators at rural hospitals generally believe there is no point in establishing a laboratory outreach program. Potential clients are few, and distances between small towns are great. But neither of these obstacles prevented Olympic Memorial Hospital from succ…
Nominations Now Open For Laboratory Innovators
CEO SUMMARY: Nominations are now open as THE DARK REPORT seeks to identify laboratory executives who deserve recognition. Our annual awards program honors the innovators and leaders within the clinical laboratory industry who push the boundaries of management change and show us how to bes…
Providing Direction Leads To Happier Docs, Lower Costs, And Outreach Success
CEO SUMMARY: Some of the best stories in laboratory management are found in the unlikeliest of places. In this case we travel to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, where a 120 bed rural hospital has developed an energized laboratory team. It wasn’t easy and it didn’t happen qu…
LabCorp Hosts DARK REPORT For Burlington Site Visit
CEO SUMMARY: During the years of sustained bad financial news that dogged the major laboratories, there was a reluctance to speak publicly about any aspect of the laboratory business. That era seems to be ending, as LabCorp and the other national laboratories become friendlier and more ac…
Tennessee Lab Network To Become Operational
CEO SUMMARY: Although news of regional laboratory networks disappeared from the pages of lab industry publications, the movement is far from dead. In Tennessee, 13 hospital laboratories are about to launch the Middle Tennessee Healthcare Network. Organizers believe they have solutions to …
Big Hospital-PPM Alliance Announced For New York
CEO SUMMARY: This alliance involves PhyCor and the New York and Presbyterian Hospitals Care Network. Like the MedPartners/Tenet deal in California reported in our last issue, this joint venture will have far-reaching impact upon the local healthcare marketplace it serves. H…
Corning Stock Price Skyrockets Since Spin-Off Of Corning Labs
STOCK PRICES of Corning Incorporated have climbed since the divestiture on January 1, 1997 of Corning Clinical Laboratories and Corning Life Sciences into Quest Diagnostics Incorporated and Covance, Inc., respectively. During 1995 a…
Dynacare Inks New Pact With Milwaukee Hospital
CEO SUMMARY: Dynacare is on the move again. Its latest partnership is with a leading Milwaukee hospital. Dynacare’s aggressive marketing effort to develop joint ventures with hospital laboratories will continue. It may announce more new contracts by year’s end. DEALMAKE…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 13 – September 15, 2025
The Dark Report examines a new bill that would reform PAMA and avoid reimbursement rate cuts scheduled for January 2026. Clinical laboratory leaders are urged to make their voices heard in Congress. Also, an expert describes how labs can fix pre-analytical errors and avoid disaster.
See the full table of contentsHow Much Laboratory Business Intelligence Have You Missed?
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