Jun 10, 2011 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
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…)
May 16, 2011 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Hospital leaders attribute process improvement with turning around the organization
In Seattle, Washington, one of the nation’s earliest hospitals to embrace and implement Lean and the Toyota Production System reports strong improvement in clinical care, along with sound finances. This is positive affirmation for those clinical laboratories and pathology groups that are using Lean methods in their own organizations.
It was almost 10 years ago when the 336-bed Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) took its first steps to implement Lean. During the academic medical center’s decade-long journey, use of out-of-the-box thinking and process improvement methods helped VMMC earn a slew of national recognitions for its award-winning outcomes produced by Lean. It calls its flavor of Lean the “Virginia Mason Production System.”
Restoring Financial Stability at Virginia Mason Medical Center
Ten years ago, VMMC faced difficult challenges as a healthcare provider and money was one of them.
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Mar 11, 2011 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Agreement with Germany’s INSTAND will include developing clinical lab proficiency testing program in Egypt
DATELINE: CAIRO, EGYPT—Here in Egypt’s capital city, the Egyptian Society of Laboratory Medicine (ESLM) is conducting its 22nd Annual Conference. One of Wednesday’s main sessions during this gathering of pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists centered on the topic of ISO 15189, as well as Lean and Six Sigma methods.
Your Dark Daily Editor, Robert Michel, is here in Cairo and delivered two presentations during this session. One presentation addressed growing global acceptance of ISO 15189. The second presentation discussed the adoption and use of Lean and Six Sigma by medical laboratories throughout the world. There is keen interest in ISO 15189 among Egyptian pathologists because the nation is incorporating ISO 15189 into its national program for accreditation of clinical pathology laboratories. (more…)
Feb 28, 2011 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
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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Jan 13, 2011 | Uncategorized
A2LA, CAP, and QMP-LS to Participate in an Informational Event on January 20th
ISO 15189 is gaining a foothold among laboratories in the United States. Since the first clinical pathology laboratory in the U.S. earned accreditation to “ISO 15189:2007 Medical Laboratories” in 2008, there has been a steady increase in the number of clinical laboratories that have embarked on their own path to accreditation.
This fall, The Dark Report and Dark Daily invited all three of the organizations in North America that offer accreditation services for ISO 15189 to speak at the fourth annual Lab Quality Confab, which took place in San Antonio, Texas, on November 2-3, 2010. It marked the first time that all three of these ISO-accrediting organizations spoke in public at one time and in one place. (more…)
