Several Big Surprises in 2018’s Top 10 Lab Stories

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXV No. 18 – December 24, 2018 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: This year’s list of the Top 10 Lab Industry Stories for 2018 is dominated by new directives from Medicare and private health insurers, as well as significant decisions by federal courts. Collectively, these developments create new compliance risks for all clinical laborator…

Read More

---

ProMedica, Sonic Form Lab Outreach Joint Venture

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXV No. 12 – August 20, 2018 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Fast-growing ProMedica Health System of Toledo, Ohio, agreed to a laboratory joint venture with Sonic Healthcare USA. As lab budgets and prices for lab tests are squeezed downward, ProMedica sees opportunity to add volume to this new core lab facility to improve efficiency an…

Read More

---

Key Lab Trends Described At Executive War College

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXV No. 7 – May 7, 2018 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Innovative clinical labs and pathology groups are absorbing this year’s Medicare Part B price cuts while continuing to pursue opportunities to add value. A common theme from many speakers at last week’s Executive War College in New Orleans is that the lab must get mastery…

Read More

---

Georgia Micro Lab Slashes TAT by Almost Two Days

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXV No. 6 – April 16, 2018 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Two projects to boost the performance of the microbiology laboratory at University Health Services in Augusta, Ga., significantly reduced test turnaround times in ways that contributed to improved patient outcomes. The first project was in 2016, when the lab introduced mass s…

Read More

---

Clinical Labs Bidding Up Lab Director Salaries

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIV No. 3 – February 21, 2017 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: There’s great news for pathologists and PhDs with expertise in molecular and genetic testing. Salaries are on the rise as more clinical labs build up their molecular and genetic testing programs and need talent to implement and supervise this activity. One experienced medic…

Read More

---

2015’s Top 10 Lab Stories Show Significant Changes

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXII, Number 18 – December 28, 2015 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: During 2015, two stories captured the full attention of most pathologists and clinical lab managers. One was how CMS intends to gather lab price market data as mandated by PAMA. The other was the continued efforts by the FDA to move ahead on proposed guidance for regulation o…

Read More

---

Combining Lean Techniques with Lab Automation to Get Impressive Results

By Mary Van Doren | From the Volume XXII No. 10 – July 13, 2015 Issue

PROBABLY NO AREA OF CLINICAL LABORATORY MEDICINE is experiencing the dramatic transformation happening in microbiol…

Read More

---

Combining Lean with Lab Automation to Get Impressive Results

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXII No. 10 – July 13, 2015 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: By combining total lab automation with Lean techniques in a comprehensive makeover of its microbiology lab, one of the largest labs providing hospital acute care and community microbiology services in North America achieved major benefits. Benefits ranged from impro…

Read More

---

Newer, Smaller Analyzers Will Bring Big Data to Labs

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXII No. 10 – July 13, 2015 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Clinical laboratories of all sizes are poised to become the source of much of a hospital or health system’s “big data.” At many academic center labs, greater use of genetic and molecular testing requires that more space and more staff be devoted to data management. A…

Read More

---

Leveraging Testing Technology To Identify MRSA, C. Difficile

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XX No. 3 – March 4, 2013 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Probably the most challenging infections for hospitals to control and reduce are methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile (C. diff). The laboratory at one New York hospital introduced algorithms to screen for the presence of each i…

Read More

---