Joint Commission Will Not Accept COLA Accreditation

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXX No. 2 – January 23, 2023 Issue

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 …

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Eight Macro Trends for Clinical Labs in 2023

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXX, No. 1 – January 3, 2023 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Laboratory administrators and pathologists will want to carefully study eight important trends that will guide their business strategies in 2023. Many of these macro trends center on financial and operational difficulties and ways to steer around these obstacles. Anothe…

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2022’s Top 10 Lab Stories Confirm Challenging Times

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIX, No. 17 – December 12, 2022 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: There are valuable insights to be gleaned from The Dark Report’s “Top 10 Lab Industry Stories for 2022.” Several of this year’s story picks involve external forces reshaping healthcare in the United States in profound ways. Other story picks for 2022 illustrate …

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Use This Five-Step Process to Implement a New LIS

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIX, No. 16 – November 21, 2022 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Rolling out a new laboratory information system (LIS) is a costly, time-consuming project. One expert outlines five steps that clinical labs can take to alleviate pressures while ensuring the right people are onboard to help the endeavor move forward. Among the steps is…

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U.S. Hospitals Will Lose Billions of Dollars in 2022

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIX, No. 15 – October 31, 2022 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Hospitals and health systems in most regions of the United States are reporting substantial losses, both in patient care and in the value of their investment portfo­lios. This is inauspicious for the clinical laboratories operated by these hospitals. Hospital-bas…

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AI Fuels New Efforts in Computational Pathology

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIX, No. 14 – October 10, 2022 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Computational pathology combines technology and data science to improve laboratory medicine. Mayo Clinic is exploring how this new model can improve productivity and diagnostic accuracy in ways that even labs at smaller hospitals can put into practice. Success will stem…

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Telemedicine Firms Offer Home Phlebotomy Service

By Robert Michel

CEO SUMMARY: Telemedicine provider Teladoc Health has announced new services for certain primary care customers that include at-home phlebotomy appointments. The move is evidence of the consumer demand for increased convenience and flexibility in their healthcare. Scarlet Health, a …

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Tactics to Standardize Point-of-Care Testing

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIX, No. 12 – August 29, 2022 Issue

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…

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Tough Times Ahead for Hospitals and Their Labs

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIX, No. 11 – August 8, 2022 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: These are challenging times for the nation’s hospitals, health systems, and clinical labs. A perfect storm involving unprecedented shortages of lab staff, nurses, and other professionals with inflation-fueled cost increases and deteriorating hospital finances was a major topic of…

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Might VALID Act Support Be Waning in Congress?

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIX, No. 10 – July 18, 2022 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Just weeks ago, events seemed to indicate that the Verifying Accurate Lea…

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