Many Hospitals and Health Systems Report Flat or Falling Rates of Inpatient Admissions, a Trend that Causes Hospital Laboratory Budgets to Shrink

Weaker finances at the nation’s hospitals causes administrators to further shrink the budgets for clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology services Hospital admissions across the country continue to be flat or in decline over recent years. The result is less revenue for many hospitals. As a result, administrators continue to shrink the budgets of hospital service lines—including clinical laboratory services. For pathologists and clinical laboratory leaders, this poses the challenge of...

Growing Wave of Hospital and Health System Mega-Mergers Means Changing Dynamics for Pathology and Clinical Laboratory Medicine

Accelerating pace of hospital consolidation brings new pressure to pathologists and clinical laboratory directors to maximize the value of pathology services Large and financially-stable multi-hospital health systems are racing to form regional mega-systems. It’s a strategy to get ahead of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) mandate to improve quality and increase efficiency through coordinated care across the entire care continuum. This growing national trend means further consolidation of...

Push by ACOs to Give Patients a Stake in Their Healthcare Provides Opportunities for Engagement by Clinical Laboratories and Pathologists

With payouts riding on patient outcomes and value, ACO providers will welcome innovative services that clinical labs and pathologist could provide that improve patient outcomes Both private health insurance companies and employers are betting on value-based insurance as the key to improving healthy behavior in patients. This will require more patient engagement in managing their chronic conditions. It will also include motivating patients to consider less expensive treatment options,...

Meet the Nation’s Top 10 Healthcare Systems for Quality

Advanced use of EHRs is one characteristic of nation’s quality leaders It’s a new study and ranking of top-performing health systems that Dark Daily readers will find interesting and useful. Thomson Reuters announced its latest Top 10 rankings, and identified three main ingredients for attaining higher-quality outcomes. They were: 1) a corporate-level coordinating committee; 2) ample involvement in planning from front-line caregivers; and a system-wide electronic health record system (EHR)....
;