TAG:
lab techs
After Two Decades, CMS Wants to Update CLIA Lab Regulations
IN THE FIRST EFFORT OF ITS kIND in more than two decades, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has published a request for information (RFI) in the Federal Register as a first step to revise the CLIA rules it promulgated in 1992. Over the years, CMS has made some m…
Sarasota Hospital Lab Reduces Number of Hemolyzed Specimens
CEO SUMMARY: Seeking to improve turnaround time for stat lab tests, the laboratory at Sarasota Memorial Health Care System identified high rates of hemolysis as the chief reason for less than ideal TAT. Because 32% of blood draws were handled by the lab’s phlebotomy staff while 68% of b…
Labs Should Prepare for Tighter CLIA Enforcement
CEO SUMMARY: Lab directors and pathologists should take notice of disturbing new developments in enforcement of CLIA regulations. During the past year, CMS officials have revoked the CLIA certification of several hospital laboratories for what are, essentially, inadvertent violations of p…
Shiel Medical Lab Grows In Tough NYC Market
CEO SUMMARY: There’s a new lab player emerging in the New York metropolitan market. Shiel Medical Laboratory of Brooklyn, New York, is growing steadily and now reports $50 million in annual revenue. It is taking full advantage of the managed care contracting turmoil and adding new clien…
Pinkus DermPath Earns ISO-9000 Certification
CEO SUMMARY: After learning about quality management systems at a recent Executive War College, the lab director at Pinkus Dermatopathology recognized how such techniques could be used in his lab to improve quality, reduce errors, and create a better working environment for both pathologi…
Baltimore Hospital Lab Problems Put Spotlight On CAP Inspections
CEO SUMMARY: Here’s an exclusive peek into a three-year battle between medical technologists wanting to do the right thing and a laboratory manager—backed by hospital administration—who aggressively stifled well-justified dissent. It is an inside look at one of the most grievous fai…
MT Contracts HIV & HCV In Hospital Lab Scandal
CEO SUMMARY: An extraordinary story is unfolding in a Baltimore hospital laboratory. Maryland state health officials have uncovered serious operational deficiencies, particularly with HIV and HCV testing performed over a 14-month period. During this same time, a medical technologist now i…
New Trends in 2003 Affect Clinical Lab Services
CEO SUMMARY: Here’s our current list of macro trends that affect clinical laboratories, updated from the last list in January 2000. One bold prediction is that Medicare, as we know it, is on the verge of a major meltdown. Employers and consumers are also new forces to be reckoned with b…
New Efforts to Boost Supply of MTs & MLTs
CEO SUMMARY: Most laboratorians are acutely aware that the nation’s pool of trained medical technicians and medical technologists is shrinking even as growing numbers of baby-boomer lab techs approach retirement. Meanwhile, training programs are feeding inadequate numbers of new med tec…
2001’s Ten Big Stories Presage Future Direction
CEO SUMMARY: During 2001, few labs found themselves under intense pressure to change or react to dramatic events in the healthcare marketplace. Like 2000, this past year was marked by evolutionary progress, not revolutionary change. However, continuing signs indicate that consumers will p…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXVIII, No. 4 – March 22, 2021
THERE’S POSITIVE NEWS FOR LABS on several fronts. For one, the daily number of routine test specimens is near pre-pandemic levels and certain sectors of lab testing—particularly genetic tests and some high-cost assays—are showing substantial growth this year, compared to 2019. Also, the Stark Law and AKS have been revised to make it easier for labs to comply.
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