Leapfrog Group Report Shows Hospitals Failing to Eliminate Hospital-Acquired Infections; Medical Laboratories Can Help Providers’ Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs

Contrary to CMS and Joint Commission programs implemented in 2017 to reduce them, incidents of hospital-acquired infections have risen for the past few years Clinical laboratories and anatomic pathologists know that hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) can be deadly, not just for patients, but for their caregivers and families as well. Even one HAI is too many. Thus, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) required healthcare organizations to upgrade their antimicrobial...

CMS Missed 96 Hospitals with Suspected HAI Reporting Due to Limited Use of Analytics, OIG Report Reveals

OIG suggests better use of analytics by CMS could prevent gaming of the system by providers; clinical laboratories can help through test utilization management technology It may come as a surprise to many hospital-based pathologists and clinical laboratory managers that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has reason to suspect that some hospitals are “gaming” the system in how they report hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). In 2015, CMS implemented the Hospital-Acquired...

New Fast, Inexpensive, Mobile Device Accurately Identifies Healthcare-Acquired Infections and Communicates Findings to Doctors’ Smartphones and Portable Computers

Use of these new technologies creates opportunities for clinical laboratories and pathologists to add more value when collaborating with physicians to advance patient care Ongoing improvements in point-of-care testing are encouraging one major academic medical center to apply this mode of testing to the diagnosis of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). This development should be of interest to clinical laboratory professionals and pathologists, since it has the potential to create a different...

Consumer Reports Says Thousands of Doctors Facing Medical Probation Continue to See Patients; Calls for More Patient Access to Physician Disciplinary Records

Latest calls for easier public access to information on physician performance and quality is a reminder to clinical laboratories and pathology groups of the trend to greater transparency on provider outcomes If any clinical laboratory executive or pathologist still doubts that more transparency of provider outcomes is a topic of interest to patients, they have only to look at Consumer Reports, well-respected for its advocacy on behalf of consumers. Consumer Reports is using multiple ways to...

Frost & Sullivan Report Identifies Molecular Diagnostics as Fastest-Growing Sector of Clinical Pathology Laboratory Testing

Annual growth rates of 11% or more is predicted for molecular diagnostics in coming years Just as consolidation and acquisitions reshaped the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) manufacturing industry and concentrated market share among just a handful of multi-billion dollar IVD giants, a similar consolidation can be seen in the molecular diagnostics sector. Today it is estimated that just nine global companies control 75% of the molecular diagnostics market. That market concentration means clinical...
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