Oct 29, 2021 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, International Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Resources, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations, Molecular Diagnostics, Genetic Testing, Whole Gene Sequencing
CDC advises clinical laboratories and microbiologists encountering C. auris to follow their own protocols before adopting federal agency guidelines In July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned healthcare facilities and clinical laboratories to be on the alert for Candida auris (C. auris) infections in their patients. An outbreak of the drug resistant and potentially deadly fungus had appeared in two Dallas hospitals and a Washington D.C. nursing home. Since those...
Jul 28, 2021 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
VA Office of Inspector General recommends changes in management processes after doctor is sentenced to long federal prison term In a compelling report, the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that a host of management failures and “deficiencies in the facility’s quality management processes” at an Arkansas VA hospital contributed to “thousands of diagnostic errors” throughout the tenure of the facility’s Chief of Pathology and Laboratory Medical...
Jun 2, 2021 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
In a letter, Congress urged the HHS Secretary to conduct “vigorous oversight and enforces full compliance with the final rule” Analysis of more than 3,100 hospital websites by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has found “hundreds” containing embedded code that prevents search engines from displaying the hospitals’ prices. This is contrary to the Hospital Price Transparency Final Rule (84 FR 65524), passed in November 2019, which requires hospitals to “establish, update,...
May 28, 2021 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
New USPSTF guidelines suggest reducing the volume of Vitamin D deficiency testing in the general population, which could reduce revenue for clinical laboratories From 2005 to 2011, the volume of clinical laboratory tests for Vitamin D soared nationally as more doctors tested more patients for Vitamin D deficiency. This became a major source of revenue growth for many clinical laboratories performing those tests. But at least a portion of lab revenue associated with Vitamin D testing may be in...
May 26, 2021 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Management & Operations
Cozy relationships between hospital chief executives and healthcare companies they do business with may raise ethical questions If hospital employees, including pathologists, wonder why their hospital uses a certain company’s products and services it may be because their Chief Executive Officer (CEO) sits on the Board of Directors of the same companies from which the hospital buys products and services. That’s the suggestion in a recent Boston Globe investigative report. In “Boston’s Hospital...
May 17, 2021 | Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
Acceptance of digital pathology and whole-slide imaging is now almost universal among academic health center pathology departments and the nation’s largest pathology companies Across the United States, many private practice anatomic pathology groups now recognize that digital pathology is the path forward for the entire profession. During the past decade, most academic pathology departments and large pathology lab companies have incorporated digital pathology (DP) and whole-slide imaging (WSI)...
