Converting Paper Requisitions to Digital Cut Lab’s Costs

By Joseph Burns

CEO SUMMARY: Health Network Laboratories cut costs and shortened lab test turnaround time by converting paper requisitions to digital data. It did so by scanning paper requisitions and having a vendor do the required data entry. This helped the lab reduce errors in its patient data. Using…

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OIG Finds 120-Day Delays at Memphis VA Path Lab

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXVI No. 12 – September 3, 2019 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Last year, Veterans Administration officials received an anonymous complaint about delays in laboratory specimen processing and results at the Memphis VA Medical Center may have harmed patients and led to a patient death. Following an investigation, the VA’s Office of Inspe…

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Pathology Errors a Factor in 3 Deaths at VA Hospital

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXV No. 14 – October 1, 2018 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Outside pathologists are reviewing the pathology reports of almost 20,000 patients of an Arkansas Veterans Administration hospital following termination of a Chief of Pathology who was believed to have handled cases while impaired. Currently, the review identified 256 cases w…

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Dartmouth-Hitchcock Builds Strong Lab Outreach Business

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXV No. 10 – July 9, 2018 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: As health networks and hospitals consider outsourcing their lab outreach programs, the lab team at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (D-H) offers lessons about the value of retaining outreach. D-H is now in the eighth year of a sustained expansion of its laboratory outreach …

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CMS Report, News Stories Describe Pathology Issues

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

CEO SUMMARY: In response to information the pathology lab staff provided to the hospital’s risk manager last fall, and following a federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services inspection in February, the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is taking corrective action to fix serious…

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Florida Pathology Group Lost Volume After BeaconLBS Started

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIII No. 9 – July 5, 2016 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: A 22-physician pathology group in Tampa has complied with rules for lab test ordering that UnitedHealthcare and BeaconLBS established, yet has experienced a steep decline in the volume of specimens it receives. Physicians told the pathologists that other labs were not using t…

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UPMC-KingMed Digital Pathology Venture Improves Patient Care

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXIII No. 4 – March 21, 2016 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Many experts think that digital pathology will make it possible to create international pathology subspecialty referral networks. Now in its fifth year, a partnership between UPMC’s Pathology Department and KingMed Diagnostics of China uses telepathology to give Chinese pat…

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Lab Serving Large MD Group Manages Quality and Costs

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXI NO. 6 – April 28, 2014 Issue

 CEO SUMMARY: For decades, pathologists have pointed out that their expertise in laboratory medicine can be tapped by physicians to improve utilization of lab tests, contribute to improved patient outcomes, and reduce the overall cost of care. Exactly that is now happening at Atrius Heal…

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Anatomic Pathology Business Faces Uncertain Future

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXI No. 4 – March 17, 2014 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: There’s a day of reckoning on the way for the traditional business model of the private pathology group practice. At most risk are smaller pathology groups that typically have five or fewer pathologists. Blame it on the reduced prices that Medicare and private insurers are …

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Maine’s Spectrum Medical Group Offers Multiple Specialties

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXI No. 4 – March 17, 2014 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Pathologists looking for a viable future in a healthcare system marked by integration of clinical care and value-based reimbursement will be interested to learn about Spectrum Medical Group based in Portland, Maine. This 180-member multispecialist group includes 22 pathologis…

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