TAG:
lab management
Seven Deadly Sins of Lab Management Are Much Too Common
CEO SUMMARY: Pity the poor laboratory manager of today. Lab budgets are shrinking. It is difficult to staff adequate numbers of skilled medical technologists. Baby boomers are now retiring. At the same time, accreditation and licensure inspections are becoming tougher. Recently, …
Pursuing More Benefits From Next Generation Lab Automation
CEO Summary: Once it was decided to replace an aging, five-year-old laboratory automation system at the laboratory of Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Illinois, the administration at the hospital issued a challenge. It asked the laboratory team to deliver an immediate 10% cos…
Actions of Ex-Employees Can Breach Lab Security
CEO SUMMARY: Lab managers should take steps to protect patient data and proprietary information. This includes customer lists, payer contracts, customer-specific pricing, sales force compensation information, lab testing intellectual property, and protected health information. Te…
Did Wrong Strategy Sink Westcliff Medical Labs?
CEO SUMMARY: All sorts of people will argue all sorts of opinions about the financial demise of BioLabs, Inc., and its subsidiary, Westcliff Medical Laboratories, Inc., and why it ended up in a California bankruptcy court. Documents filed in the case indicate that, from the birth…
Optimism & Opportunity at Executive War College
CEO SUMMARY: Instead of our annual review of key speakers as a source of emerging trends and common themes, this year we assess the attitudes, opinions, and activities of the pathologists, laboratory administrators, managers, and industry executives in attendance at the 15th Annu…
E-Prescribing Functions that Labs Can Offer Office-Based Physicians
IN RESPONSE TO MEDICARE AND PRIVATE PAYER efforts to increase physicians’ use of e-prescribing, 4Medica, Inc., of Culver City, California, was one of the first laboratory informatics vendors to add an effective e-prescribing capability to its lab test order and results reporting sy…
Third Laboratory Earns ISO 15189 Accreditation
CEO SUMMARY: In June, the laboratory at Blanchard Valley Hospital became third in the nation to be accredited to ISO 15189:2007. The 150-bed acute facility in Findlay, Ohio, is the only hospital laboratory of its size to achieve accreditation to the ISO 15189 standard. Implementi…
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…
How PAML Built a Major Business In Lab Joint Ventures with Hospitals
 “A well-structured laboratory joint venture helps the hospital partner tap the unrealized value of its laboratory, because the independent lab partner provides capital, along with experience, and expertise to s…
Medicare Rules Tighten Anatomic Path Mark-ups
CEO SUMMARY: Effective on January 1, 2008, new rules take effect that restrict the circumstances under which physicians can mark up the anatomic pathology services provided to their patients. However, ambiguities in how the rules are written are likely to make the intent of the new rules …
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.
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