Apr 11, 2012 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Clinical laboratories and pathology groups may need to re-strategize should hospital inpatient admission rates begin declining as a result of proactive clinical care programs
More hospitals are ramping up their services in proactive outpatient care. The goal is to reduce hospital admissions and curb costs. The challenge is that fewer admissions and shorter stays mean a drop in hospital revenues. For the hospitals’ clinical laboratories, it also means less inpatient lab test volumes.
Hospitals are doing this in response to changes in reimbursement models specifically designed to incentivize providers to keep people out of hospitals. Of all sites that deliver patient care, hospitals account for the greatest share of the nation’s healthcare dollar. This makes them a prime target for cost cutting, noted a recent story in Modern Healthcare (MH).
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Oct 21, 2011 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Local hospitals and biotech companies team up with San Jose State University to train more clinical laboratory scientists
Everyone is aware of the shortage of medical technologists (MT) and clinical laboratory scientists that plagues clinical laboratories in almost every region of the United States. It is widely-recognized that current training programs for MTs and CLSs fall short of providing adequate numbers of new workers to meet the demand by medical laboratories.
But it’s a different story in San Jose, California. That’s because San Jose State University (SJS) snagged a $5 million federal grant to fund its Clinical Laboratory Scientist (CLS) Training Program and similar work training programs for healthcare professionals.
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Jun 29, 2011 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
These annual rankings show that the nation’s largest healthcare systems continue to grow in revenue and bed count
When it comes to the nation’s largest healthcare systems, it is no surprise that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) tops the list, at least when ranked by annual revenue. That is the finding of a “Top 10” survey of healthcare systems recently published by Modern Healthcare magazine.
This survey is useful to pathologists and clinical laboratory managers because these “Top 10” healthcare system rankings also provide insight as to where the nation’s largest hospital-based laboratory organizations can be found. For example, the VA operates 164 acute-care hospitals. That represents a large volume of clinical laboratory testing for those inpatients.
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Feb 9, 2011 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Pathology
Pathologists take note: 80% of physicians will be using mobile technology by 2012
Meet “mHealth!” That’s the new term to describe how mobile devices are used in the delivery of healthcare to patients. Many clinical laboratories and pathology groups already have laboratory informatics solutions that support how their client physicians use mHealth solutions in patient care.
Experts predict that Smartphones will dominate mobile healthcare (mHealth) in just a few short years. The enabling tools will be mobile applications (apps) that monitor such conditions as diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease and asthma. Smart phones will also be used to order medical laboratory tests and access clinical laboratory test data.
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Aug 25, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Topping the list are, the Veterans Administration and HCA, which together employee almost 200,000 people
Recently, a ranking of the nation’s top 25 healthcare systems by number of employees was published. In the number one spot is the Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Department. It employs 207,000 employees. Ranked number two is HCA, Inc., the for-profit hospital corporation. It has 77,000 employees.
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will recognize that both the VA and HCA are national healthcare systems. By contrast, New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System ranks number five on the list with 55,048 employees and its locations are clustered in and around New York City.
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