TAG:
process improvement
Medicare Soon Won’t Pay Hospitals for Errors
CEO SUMMARY: CMS issued new rules, effective in October 2008, that it will no longer pay the extra cost of treating patients after preventable errors, infections, or injuries that occur in hospitals. It continues Medicare’s transformation from a “passive payer simply …
Lean/Six Sigma in Labs Becomes More Common
CEO SUMMARY: Across healthcare, laboratories, hospitals, and health systems are leading the drive to incorporate quality management methods into clinical services and daily operations. This fall, in Atlanta, the Lab Quality Confab will provide a detailed look at this trend, with 50 speake…
CDC Seeks to Identify Best Laboratory Practices
CEO SUMMARY: To advance the goal of enhancing the practice of laboratory medicine, the CDC has organized two teams of laboratory experts. They will study best practices and proficiency testing in medical labs nationwide. Such approaches as lab standards, voluntary reporting of adverse eve…
Middleware Produces Data In Real Time for Lab Managers
CEO SUMMARY: With sustained pressure on laboratories to cut costs, reduce errors, and raise quality, lab managers need faster access to detailed information about lab work processes. One solution is to use middleware to collect data in real time from the LIS and other sources, then analyz…
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…
Is Nation’s Best Quality Laboratory in Arizona?
CEO SUMMARY: Without much fanfare or public attention, one lab is achieving recognition for quality and service excellence possibly unmatched in the clinical laboratory industry. In 2003, Sonora Quest Laboratories received Arizona’s Pioneer Award for Quality—the first healthcare provi…
Kaiser Permanente NW Incorporates ISO-9000 In Regional Lab Design
CEO SUMMARY: After achieving its ISO-9000 certification, Kaiser Permanente Northwest’s laboratory division accomplished another distinction. It became the first lab in the nation to use the principles of ISO-9000 to design, build and operate a new, state-of-the-art, automated laboratory…
Beaumont Reference Labs Earns ISO-9000 for Outreach
MOTIVATED BY THE GOAL of improving all aspects of its laboratory outreach program, Beaumont Reference Laboratories (BRL) of Royal Oaks, Michigan recently earned its ISO-9000:2001 certification. “In the competitive market for lab testing, we wanted to raise the bar,” stated Joseph E. Skrisson, D…
Academic Center Lab Implementing Six Sigma
CEO SUMMARY: Fairview-University Medical Center’s laboratory may be the nation’s first academic center laboratory to deploy Six Sigma and Lean management systems. Administration expects Six Sigma to accelerate the rate at which improvements in quality and productivity can be realized….
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 6 – April 21, 2025
Now that a federal judge has vacated the FDA’s LDT rule, The Dark Report analyzes the judgement and notes the various steps the FDA could take in response. Also, lab testing at pharmacies is proving to be less successful than was once anticipated.
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