TAG:
lean team
Marshfield Clinic Lab Tackles Phlebotomy Workflow Redesign
CEO SUMMARY: Before a redesign of phlebotomy workflow at Marshfield Clinic, patients might wait as long as an hour, particularly before noon when phlebotomists would see 75% of each day’s patients. After the redesign, the number of draw sites was reduced from five to two while hand…
Raising the Bar with Better Phlebotomy Service
STEP BY STEP, INNOVATIVE CLINICAL LABORATORIES AND PATHOLOGY GROUPS across the country are deliberately raising the level of service they provide to patients and physicians. In the short term, this often delivers competitive advantage—at least until competing laboratories improve their own service …
WellSpan’s Lab Designs the “Ideal” Phlebotomy
CEO SUMMARY: Lengthy wait times for patients at phlebotomy sites is a common problem for labs across the country. But the laboratory at WellSpan Health System in York, Pennsylvania decided to apply Lean methods to change this situation. Their Lean projects at two pilot patient se…
Using Lean to Cut Pap Test TAT Pays Off At Baystate Medical
USE OF LEAN METHODS HAS UNLOCKED major improvements at Baystate Health’s Department of Pathology in Springfield, Massachusetts. One Lean project cut average Pap test turnaround time by more than 50%. Another Lean project attacked errors with Advanced Beneficiary No…
Boston’s Beth Israel Scores Improvement Gains with Lean
CEO Summary: Lean methods are helping laboratories resolve aggravating problems that have been unresolvable for as long as 10 years. At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, improvement teams involving the laboratory and ED staff addressed high rates of hemolyzed specim…
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…
Implementing Best Practices Across 27 Hospital Labs
CEO SUMMARY: It is always challenging to ensure consistency and high productivity across the different labs in a consolidated lab organization. To help staff focus on quality and efficiency, Alverno Clinical Laboratories LLC uses Lean methods to improve quality and timely delivery of lab …
More Labs Opt to Use and Lab Automation
CEO SUMMARY: Many of the nation’s more innovative laboratory organizations are paying closer attention to laboratory productivity and operational performance. To achieve improved operations, these labs are putting three tools to greater use. They are using targeted automation solutions …
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…
Big Seattle Med Center Adopts “Lean” Methods
CEO SUMMARY: Laboratory and pathology services at Virginia Mason Medical Center are an integral part of its hospital-wide Lean quality management initiative. Because of the importance of lab test data to so many clinical services, the laboratory often finds itself making key contributions…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 4 – March 10, 2025
A bold new technology has entered the European lab marketplace, with the introduction of an autonomous robotic phlebotomy device, already in service at a Netherlands hospital. Also, The Dark Report announces its sale to LabX Media Group of Ontario Canada.
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