TAG:
quality management
Pap Testing in Ireland & Massachusetts
IT IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL that, in this issue, you will read intelligence briefings about Pap testing in Ireland (see pages 3-5) and Massachusetts (see pages 10-15). Yet, both stories, taken together, send an important message to laboratory executives and pathologists. Because of ongoing evolution i…
Using Lean at Henry Ford Transforms Pathology TAT
CEO SUMMARY: Long-standing work flow traditions in anatomic pathology provide fertile ground for improvement with Lean and similar process improvement methods. That was the case at Henry Ford Health System, where empowered teams in the pathology laboratory employed the principles…
Getting Vitamin D Right for the Doctor and Patient
MOST OF YOU ARE FAMILIAR with how W. Edwards Deming and Japanese manufacturers demonstrated the power of understanding customer expectations and organizing one’s business to deliver products and services which meet and exceed those expectations. For the past four decades, one thing that many of th…
Accreditation with DNV Helps Hospital Raise Inpatient Volume
CEO SUMMARY: In Utica, New York, 201-bed St. Elizabeth Medical Center was the first hospital in New York State and one of the first five hospitals nationwide to meet the new accreditation standard from DNV Healthcare, of Cincinnati, Ohio. St. Elizabeth administrators credit use o…
Despite the Recession, Many Local Labs Thrive
CEO SUMMARY: Each year, the Executive War College offers useful perspectives on the current lab testing marketplace. This year’s gathering took place as the recession deepened. Yet that didn’t dampen the optimism and energy of 60 speakers and more than 450 attendees from 12 c…
Expanding Lab Market Share in a Recession
IT IS UNCHARTED TERRITORY FOR CLINICAL LABS AND PATHOLOGY GROUPS. A recession now officially exists in the United States. The last time this nation experienced an extended and painful economic recession was between July 1981 and November 1982, according to Wikipedia.com. That means it has b…
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…
Quest’s Deficiencies Trigger QA/QC Questions
CEO SUMMARY: Experts in laboratory QA/QC and proficiency testing (PT) are following the news that Quest Diagnostics admitted to an 18-month problem with lab test accuracy in its home brew Vitamin 25(OH) D assay. It is recognized as a major failure in the existing system of labora…
When Does Cost Cutting Affect a Lab’s Quality?
CEO SUMMARY: Many lab professionals note the irony that a laboratory so publicly committed to Six Sigma quality management methods is now identified with the single largest episode of systemic failure in lab test accuracy. Looking in from the outside, some pathologists suggest th…
Laboratory Industry Has “Elephant in the Room”
CEO SUMMARY: In almost every laboratory across the United States and in several countries around the globe, one much-discussed topic in recent weeks has been the Vitamin D testing program deficiencies at Quest Diagnostics Incorporated. Yet, even as rank and file laboratorians act…
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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