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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Many Physicians Deciding not to Proceed with EHR Adoption in a Development that Could Affect Clinical Laboratories Offering LIS-to-EHR Interfaces to Doctors

One problem for physicians is that many EHR products that earned Meaningful Use Stage 1 certification have not gained Stage 2 certification

Growing numbers of physicians are deciding that continuing in the federal government’s electronic health records (EHRs) incentive program is not a winning proposition. This is not an auspicious development for the nation’s clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups.

After all, every medical laboratory in the United States is spending time and money to interface their laboratory information systems with physician clients’ EHR systems to enable electronic lab test ordering and reporting. Thus, if substantial numbers of physicians decide to opt out the federal EHR incentive program, this will create a variety of problems for clinical laboratories providing lab-testing services to these physicians. (more…)

Several of Becker’s Top 2014 Health Information Technology ‘Game Changer’ Trends Have Major Implications for the Nation’s Clinical Pathology Laboratories

In particular, medical laboratories and pathology groups should be doing better at using information technology to meet the needs of consumers and to support physician workflow

Improving patient-provider communication and speeding clinician workflow are two of the top 2014 game changers in healthcare information technology (HIT) cited by a recent report. Each of these top 2014 game changers can be expected to change how patients and physicians interact with their clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology providers.

The report was published by Becker’s Hospital Review. Of the top 10 2014 HIT game changers, Dark Daily considered the two mentioned as the most notable for medical laboratory managers and pathologists. (more…)

Health Insurers Spending Big Dollars to Be Players in ‘Big Data’; Trend has Implications for Clinical Pathology Laboratories

With healthcare reform likely to limit their growth, health insurers are expanding into data management to create new revenue streams

Faced with swift changes in healthcare, many of which are not favorable to the traditional business model of private health insurers, the nation’s largest payers are positioning themselves to be major players in the management of “big data.” That may have interesting implications for clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups, which typically generate large quantities of medical laboratory test data.

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Big Health Insurers Acquire Health IT Horsepower to Support Their Accountable Care Organizations

Actions by major insurers indicate that ACOs operated by hospitals will have competition

Until recently, most media coverage about nascent accountable care organizations (ACOs) centered on the plans of major hospitals and health systems to organize ACOs within their communities. Now comes news that major health insurers are making sizeable investments as they prepare to launch their own ACOs.

These developments could be auspicious for local clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups. It could mean that in many regions around the United States there will be ACOs operated by hospitals/health systems that compete against ACOs operated by health insurance companies. In turn, that would mean more customers for lab testing services in these cities and towns.
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Clinical Pathology Laboratories Using New Technologies to Go Paperless and Capture All Data for Digital Storage in Laboratory Information Systems

Optical character recognition is improving, making it easier for medical laboratories to scan paper documents and convert that data into digital information

Endless flows of paper are the curse of clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups everywhere. Few medical laboratory organizations in the United States have successfully transitioned to a fully paperless environment.

But there is good news for pathologists and clinical lab managers who feel overwhelmed by the daily flood of paper test requisitions and other documents that flow into their labs every day. Several active trends hold the potential to allow more medical laboratories to eliminate all paper and achieve a true digital working environment.
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