Clinical Laboratories and Pharmacies Scramble to Be Ready for the Era of Hospital Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs That Starts on January 1, 2017

All hospital laboratories will be part of these programs, and it is an opportunity for medical laboratory professionals to deliver considerable value, as hospitals take steps to improve the utilization of antibiotics Clinical laboratories and pharmacies in the nation’s hospitals and health systems have a huge opportunity to deliver substantial value in patient care. That’s because, at the start of 2017, hospitals must put effective antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) in place to meet the...

Clinical Laboratories Face Deadline to Comply with New Standard for Bar Code Labels on Specimens

Complying with this standard will help reduce errors by improving specimen handling and tracking, and also reduce lab costs by boosting accuracy and quality. Clinical laboratories have about nine months to comply with a new standard for bar code labels. The deadline for compliance to AUTO12-A, Specimen Labels: Content and Location, Fonts, and Label Orientation, is April 29, 2014. While compliance next year will not affect a lab’s accreditation, in the coming years accrediting bodies, such as...
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