New Life for Idle PCR Instruments Following the Sustained Decline in COVID Testing

How one PCR laboratory optimized workflows, reduced costs, and pivoted operations for improving profitability post-COVID     As variants of SARS-CoV-2 continue to confront physicians, PCR (polymerase chain reaction) instruments purchased for COVID-19 testing may still stand idle more often than not at reference and hospital laboratories. To make matters worse, clinical laboratory administrators must still deal with fluctuating demand for COVID testing, improving the...

Three Data Trends Guiding Cost-Saving Laboratory Logistics Strategies and Benchmarks

Negative margins, a shift to nontraditional care sites, and an increasingly complex logistics environment should prompt clinical labs and anatomic pathology groups to quickly evaluate shipping costs and data analysis  In September, American Hospital Association (AHA) leaders and Kaufman Hall healthcare analysts posted a particularly dismal status update for US hospitals, saying more than half are projected to operate in negative margins for the rest of the year. As a result, hospital and...

Proven Approaches to Clinical Laboratory Cost-Cutting and Effective Staff Recruitment/Retention to Be Shared at New Workshops in Chicago and Miami

Answers and effective solutions to the lab profession’s most urgent challenges will be front and center at the innovative ‘Lab Management Essentials Workshop’ Three powerful forces are slamming clinical laboratories today. One is the urgent need to cut costs. Second is the struggle to achieve and maintain full lab staffing. Third is the pressure to increase revenue and expand market share. All of this is happening even as hospitals and health systems must deal with almost identical issues....

Walmart’s Health and Wellness Chief Discusses Retail Giant’s Move to Healthcare/Telehealth Provider, a Step with Implications for Clinical Laboratory Testing

Retail giant now has primary care clinics at stores in five states, but the rollout has not gone smoothly Healthcare is increasingly being driven by consumerism and one clear sign of this trend is Walmart’s ambitious plan to open health clinics at its retail locations. The retail giant set its plans in motion in 2019 with its first primary care site in a suburban Atlanta store, however, the rollout since then has presented certain challenges. Nevertheless, the trend of placing nearly...

Clinical Laboratory Conferences Continue to Tackle COVID-19 Protocols to Put Attendees at Ease

Proof of vaccination, masking, and availability of on-site testing will continue to be measures taken at in-person events for pathologists and medical laboratory professionals Organizers of in-person clinical laboratory conferences face an interesting dilemma as they plan events in 2022: Where do they draw the line with COVID-19 safety protocols? On one hand, the surge of cases caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant seems to be in its waning stages and large swaths of the population are...

Las Vegas Clinical Laboratory UMC Prioritizes STAT Runs, Streamlines Through Consolidation

By automating clinical chemistry and immunoassay testing, clinical laboratory leaders can improve throughput while reducing the stress on staff, laboratory expert says The American Society for Clinical Pathology regularly conducts a vacancy survey of medical laboratories throughout the US. While the problem of lab department vacancy rates has been ongoing, the last survey reported showed increased rates for laboratory positions across all departments surveyed. Last year, burnout among...
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