Oct 2, 2009 | Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
Executive Edge conference tackles the good, the bad, and the ugly of lab testing
DATELINE: TORONTO, CANADA—Yesterday and today, an impressive cross section of leaders in clinical lab testing, histopathology, and other health specialties in Canada came together. Their goal was to discuss and debate the future of laboratory testing services in Canada at the 4th Executive Edge conference.
If the future state of lab testing in Canada was the theme, ever-present in the background is the current state of laboratory testing. That’s because, since 2005, a number of news stories about deficiencies and failures in cancer testing at different pathology laboratories in Canada have made headlines across the country.
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Sep 17, 2009 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Lean Six Sigma and other methods helping laboratories cut costs and boost quality
“Cash is King!” aptly describes how most clinical labs and pathology groups are working to squeeze additional cost savings from operations during the final months of 2009. In fact, with a full quarter left in the year, nimble lab executives and managers still have plenty of remaining time to implement cost-saving initiatives that can produce savings of several tens of thousands of dollars less than budgeted spending before December 31, 2009.
That makes it perfect that the 3rd annual Lab Quality Confab on Quality Management in Diagnostic Medicine takes place on September 29-30, 2009 at the Hilton Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. For lab managers serious about producing substantial results during the fourth quarter of 2009, the Confab is the ultimate one-stop resource for Lean, Six Sigma, ISO, and all the tools and tricks of rapid process improvement (RPI).
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Sep 14, 2009 | Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
As health insurers build patient-friendly web sites, they now want all the lab test data
For laboratories wanting to contract with managed care plans, it will soon be “all about the data.” In upcoming contract renewal talks, expect health insurers to have a keen interest in working specifically with those clinical laboratories and pathology groups which can interface and electronically provide lab test data.
Dark Daily is first to identify this important development. It creates an opportunity for local laboratories to contribute added value to payers in their region. There is a specific reason for this increased interest. Health insurers are building information-rich Web sites for their insured beneficiaries. It is now important for them to have laboratory test data that they can use to populate the digital health record of their beneficiaries.
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Aug 18, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
Hospital labs come in under budget—while still improving quality, service, and revenue
Despite the recession, most first-rank hospital and health system laboratories in the United States remain upbeat about the financial integrity of their organization and their ability to negotiate the deepest economic recession since 1981-82. One reason this is true is the use of Lean, Six Sigma, and similar continuous improvement methods in the nation’s most progressive clinical labs and pathology groups.
Unlike the recession of 28 years ago, clinical laboratories today can use their experienced Lean teams to trim costs without comparable reductions in quality or service. Not surprisingly, clinical laboratories were quick to recognize how, during this economic recession, their existing Lean and process improvement programs could be tweaked with minimal effort to produce maximum operational savings. Thus, hospital labs during the past 12 months have been able to cut significant cost from their operations without any compromise in quality or the level of service they deliver to referring physicians.
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Aug 14, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratories can play a role in two of these ten cost-cutting opportunities
Everyone in healthcare expects significant across-the-board cuts to reimbursement as healthcare reform moves forward. High profile targets for cost-cutting are imaging technologies and physician preference items (PPIs), which include expensive supplies and implant products, including stents, wires, pacemakers, and knee/hip replacement prosthetics.
Hospitals and health systems, in recognition of this major shift in national health policy, are scrambling to stay ahead of these economic and regulatory pressures. It is causing them to closely scrutinize operational costs and implement cost-cutting measures.
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