TAG:
continuous improvement
Accreditation with DNV Helps Hospital Raise Inpatient Volume
CEO SUMMARY: In Utica, New York, 201-bed St. Elizabeth Medical Center was the first hospital in New York State and one of the first five hospitals nationwide to meet the new accreditation standard from DNV Healthcare, of Cincinnati, Ohio. St. Elizabeth administrators credit use o…
Cytology Lab Uses Lean to Simplify Processes
CEO SUMMARY: Like many labs today, the gynecologic cytology laboratory at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics had a pre- and post-analytical work flow with many complex steps. This work flow—heavily influenced by a legacy of previous information systems—was inefficient, conta…
Phlebotomy Automation Likely To Be Next Trend
CEO SUMMARY: Here’s a prediction that automation of work processes for phlebotomy, specimen collection, and specimen transport may be the next trend. Unfolding developments in the United States are creating a situation parallel to what was seen in Japanese hospital laboratories more tha…
ISO 15189 Is the Goal at Avera McKennan Lab
CEO SUMMARY: Now entering its ninth month on the path to accreditation under ISO 15189:2007 Medical Laboratories, Avera McKennan’s lab recently completed its “gap analysis.” This important step prepared the laboratory for the pre-assessment and assessment steps that will result in a…
Piedmont Med Lab Mixes ISO with Lean & Six Sigma
CEO SUMMARY: Piedmont Medical Laboratory (PML) could be the only clinical laboratory ever to pursue three quality improvement initiatives simultaneously. Even as it was in the early stages of implementing both Lean and Six Sigma methods, PML also decided to seek ISO 15189:2007 accreditati…
Quality Management Systems (QMS) & Healthcare
OFF THE RADAR SCREEN OF THE LABORATORY INDUSTRY is an evolving management approach that gives unity to the mishmash of quality improvement tools that carry a variety of names, but have several common attributes. Soon lab directors and pathologists will be quite familiar with the concept of the “qu…
Two U.S. Labs Pursuing ISO 15189 Accreditation
CEO SUMMARY: In their first public interviews, the nation’s only two laboratories to seek ISO 15189:2007 accreditation share insights about the process, along with its challenges and benefits. Both laboratories are in the final stages of implementation and expect to earn accreditation b…
Lean/Six Sigma in Labs Becomes More Common
CEO SUMMARY: Across healthcare, laboratories, hospitals, and health systems are leading the drive to incorporate quality management methods into clinical services and daily operations. This fall, in Atlanta, the Lab Quality Confab will provide a detailed look at this trend, with 50 speake…
Pumping Up Performance of Lab Billing & Collections
CEO SUMMARY: Coding, billing, collections, and compliance continue to grow in complexity, making management of the lab’s revenue cycle ever more difficult. One by one, a number of the nation’s largest laboratories are taking steps to automate management of their revenue cycle by utili…
Christian Hospital Laboratory Goes Lean with Solid Results
CEO SUMMARY: As part of a major restructuring program under way at Christian Hospital in St. Louis, Laboratory Administrator Bette J. Stanley decided to apply Lean quality management methods in projects to improve work processes in phlebotomy and the chemistry department. Using internal q…
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.
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