News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

Hosted by Robert Michel

News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

Hosted by Robert Michel
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Attention All Clinical Laboratory, Pathology, and IVD Sales Professionals! Nominations for First-ever National Lab Sales Excellence Awards Are Open

Medical laboratory sales reps selected as winners will each receive a $3,000 prize and an expense-paid trip to the Executive War College for the awards ceremony

Never before has the profession of laboratory medicine had a national achievement award for sales professionals who are a primary source of service between their clinical laboratory organizations and the physicians who order medical laboratory tests.

That is all about to change on April 28, 2016, when the winners of the first-ever National Lab Sales Excellence Awards will be announced. This new recognition program is being sponsored by The Dark Report, sister publication of Dark Daily. The winners of these awards will be announced at the 21st annual Executive War College on Laboratory and Pathology Management before an audience of as many as 900 lab managers, administrators, and pathologists. (more…)

Clinical Pathology Laboratories Beef Up Courier and Logistics Services to Deliver More Value to Client Physicians

Medical laboratories gain competitive advantage by using GPS and real-time vehicle tracking to improve performance of their couriers

Like everything else in laboratory medicine, even such once-simple operational areas as logistics and courier services are becoming complicated—and more expensive. The reasons are familiar to all clinical laboratory managers and pathologists.

For example, sophisticated new diagnostic technologies require that specimens be transported with greater care to ensure that they arrive at the medical laboratory with full integrity.

Tougher patient privacy laws make it essential that couriers understand how to protect the confidential information that is often printed on the clinical laboratory test requisition forms that are placed in the plastic bags with the lab samples.
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Even in New Hampshire, There is Increased Competition for Clinical Pathology Laboratory Test Referrals

Clinical laboratory outreach program at Catholic Medical Center sees new lab competitors entering the Manchester market

DATELINE: MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE—Here in the Granite State, clinical laboratories and pathology groups must respond to a growing number of healthcare market trends. This was obvious to your Dark Daily Editor during his site visit earlier this week to the medical laboratory at Catholic Medical Center, which is one of Manchester’s major hospitals.

Often, states with relatively small populations, like New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, have the luxury of watching the latest healthcare trends emerge first in the major urban centers like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. However, the accelerating pace of change across all of healthcare is changing that situation.

In Manchester, New Hampshire, competition among hospitals in the community is quite intense. According to Roberta E. Provencal, Director of Laboratory Services at Catholic Medical Center, there is equally intense competition in the outreach market for both clinical laboratory testing and anatomic pathology services. “Manchester has about 110,000 people, and there are 1.3 million in all of New Hampshire,” observed Provencal. “Yet, even though these are not large healthcare markets, we have more lab competitors marketing to doctors’ offices in our city than at any time in the past 20 years. (more…)

Laboratory Automation One Solution to Workforce Shortages in Clinical Pathology Laboratories

Gap between supply and demand for Medical Laboratory Technologists (MT) encourages greater use of laboratory automation

If there is a Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of pathologists and clinical laboratory managers, it is the largest workforce shortage in the history of the medical laboratory industry. For 2011 and beyond, demand for skilled medical technologists (MT) and clinical laboratory scientists (CLS) will far outstrip supply.

Today, many hospital and health system laboratories operate short-staffed. They are unable to recruit and retain even the number of staff positions that are authorized and budgeted. In cases where a thriving hospital laboratory outreach program is generating substantial annual increases in the volume of specimens to be tested, the medical laboratory’s inability to recruit the additional MTs and CLSs required to handle this work creates a high-stress environment for everyone in the laboratory organization.

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PAML and Centura Health Announce Creation of New Clinical Pathology Laboratory Company in Denver

It’s the second new hospital laboratory joint venture for PAML in past eight days


Earlier today, PAML and Centura Health of Denver, Colorado, announced the creation of a new clinical pathology laboratory company. It will be called “Colorado Laboratory Services” (CLS) and will operate as an LLC (limited liability company). CLS represents the second major hospital laboratory outreach joint venture for PAML in the past eight days.

Centura Health is Colorado’s largest integrated health system. It owns 13 hospitals and its flagship is 593-bed St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver. Its hospitals are strategically located throughout the Denver metropolitan area and will provide CLS with a local presence to serve physicians’ offices located around each of these medical campuses.

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