Tag: lean and six sigma

ARUP Laboratories Earns CAP’s ISO 15189 Accreditation

By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXIV, No. 5 – April 3, 2017 issue

CEO SUMMARY: Being accredited to this internationally recognized standard for quality and competence communicates to clients and prospective clients that one of the nation’s largest clinical labs is committed to the highest standards of quality. Clients already knew about that commitment but now have definitive proof, ARUP said. Also, lab administrators believed that gaining accreditation

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Top laboratory management requires top business skills

By Mary Van Doren, from the Volume XXII NO. 5 - March 30, 2015 issue

laboratory management pyramid levels level 4

Every lab organization should aspire to achieve the attributes of Level Four: Use Benchmarks to Achieve Best-in-Class because this is the level of performance where the lab is delivering optimal clinical value at highest quality and lowest cost. This is an effort in which the business skills of laboratory management come to the fore.

It is

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Benchmarking with the Best To Be a World Class Laboratory

By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXII NO. 5 - March 30, 2015 issue

CEO SUMMARY : This fourth installment of this special series about the laboratory value pyramid introduces “Level Four: Use Benchmarks to Achieve Best-in-Class.” This is the highest level of the four level pyramid. When a lab organization performs at this level, it will be delivering substantial measurable value to all stakeholders and it will have the metrics to substantiate this value. At the same time, the performance of a level four lab can be validated by its use of recognized third-party benchmarks that show it is performing equal to the best labs in the United States and across the globe. It will also have customer survey data showing it meets and exceeds its customers’ expectations.

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Gearing Up the Laboratory to Exceed Expectations of External Customers

By Robert Michel, from the Volume XXII NO. 3 - February 17, 2015 issue

CEO SUMMARY: This is the third installment of THE DARK REPORT’S description of the Laboratory Value Pyramid. It describes “Level Three: Deliver Value that Exceeds Expectations.” This is the level where the laboratory organization now shifts its emphasis from internal operation of the lab to external; to how it contributes added value to its parent hospital and the healthcare community it serves. Level three is where the lab organization can position itself as a recognized contributor to improved patient outcomes that also lower the cost of healthcare.

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At Mid-Year, Labs Struggle to Get Paid for Many Tests

By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XXI NO. 10 - July 21, 2014 issue

CEO SUMMARY: At a recent coding and billing conference, pathology and lab clients of one of the nation’s largest revenue management companies agreed that three trends have caused lower revenues since the start of 2014. One trend seen by labs involves higher deductibles and copayments from patients. Another is the exclusion of local labs from

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Standard Bar Code Labels Can Reduce Lab Errors

By Joseph Burns, from the Volume XX No. 6 - May, 6, 2013 issue

CEO SUMMARY: Standardization of bar code labels is a concept whose time has come. After implementing CLSI standard AUTO12-A, first-mover clinical labs report fewer specimen identification errors, a reduction of costs associated with specimen handling errors, and a boost in lab productivity. Moreover, accrediting bodies such as The Joint Commission and the College of American

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October 29, 2012 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

By Robert Michel, from the Volume XIX No.15 - October 29, 2012 issue

OURLab and its parent company, Prost Data, Inc., of Nashville, Tennessee, entered into an agreement to be sold to Opko Health Inc., of Miami, Florida. The purchase price of $40 million will be paid as $9.4 million in cash and $30.6 million in stock. Publicly-traded Opko has both pharmaceutical and diagnostic product lines. Jonathan Oppenheimer,

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Process Improvement Coming to Healthcare

By Robert Michel, from the Volume XIX No. 14 - October 8, 2012 issue

CEO SUMMARY: One new byword coming to healthcare in the United States is the “continuously-learning healthcare system.” At the upcoming Lab Quality Confab in San Antonio next month, lab managers and pathologists can learn more about how to achieve and sustain continuous improvement in their laboratory organization. Pathologists and lab managers who have been active

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Top 10 IT Trends Send Message For Labs & Pathology Groups

By Robert Michel, from the Volume XIX No. 6 - April 23, 2012 issue

CEO SUMMARY: Healthcare’s shift away from fee-for-service medicine and toward integrated clinical care is widely recognized. However, few lab administrators and pathologists are aware of the even faster transformation underway in healthcare informatics. Presented here are the “Top 10 Tech Trends” identified last month by Healthcare Informatics. A common theme is the need for information

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Quality Strategy Earns Honor for SD Laboratory

By Robert Michel, from the Volume XVII No 14 - October 4, 2010 issue

CEO SUMMARY: Here’s a new lab product launch with a surprise twist. Upon earning FDA clearance for its new HIV Ag/Ab Combo Assay this spring, Abbott Diagnostics selected a hospital laboratory in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to be the nation’s first clinical lab to offer the assay. The honor was recognition of the Avera McKennan

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Volume XXV No. 17 – December 3, 2018

DID CONGRESS JUST PASS A LAW that makes innocent labs guilty of criminal acts? At the last minute, Congress added all clinical laboratories to a far-reaching anti-kickback provision in the newly-enacted Support for Patients and Communities Act -- a provision that makes common practices such as paying commissions to sales staff or placing phlebotomists in labs could be illegal. Worse: The experts are baffled by the language of the new law. Notes one of these experts in this issue, "Someone in the clinical lab industry may have to get prosecuted before we get some clarity, unless the Secretary of HHS issues clarifying regulations."

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Tag: lean and six sigma

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