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
Sign In

J&J’s Ortho Clinical Diagnostics Business Snapped up by Carlyle Group for $4.15 Billion in a Sale that Will Impact OCD’s Clinical Laboratory Customers

It’s finally official! Ortho Clinical Diagnostics  (OCD) will be sold to The Carlyle Group (CG: NASDAQ), an asset management firm and equity investor. The sales agreement was announced on Thursday. Carlyle will pay $4.15 billion, and the transaction is expected to close mid-year, pending regulatory approvals.

OCD’s change of ownership will be closely watched by the thousands of medical laboratories in the United States and abroad that are customers of OCD. Typically, pathologists and clinical laboratory managers like continuity and little changes whenever one of their major vendors is sold to new owners. (more…)

Part Two on Cost-Cutting Trend in Nation’s Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups: How Innovative Labs Are Responding to Falling Lab Test Prices

In today’s tough financial environment, medical laboratories with effective Lean and Six Sigma improvement programs are showing the best financial performance

When Dark Daily wrote about how cost-cutting is now a major clinical laboratory industry trend last Wednesday, publication of that ebriefing triggered a flow of emails and commentary from readers far and wide.

Pathologists and medical laboratory managers who read Dark Daily tell us that they are facing painful decisions about where to cut. This is particularly true when labs cut expenses by reducing staff, laying off FTEs. This approach brings much emotional pain—along with the loss of valuable technical skills and extensive organizational experience that cannot be easily replaced.

(more…)

Johnson & Johnson Says It Is ‘Exploring All Options’ for Selling, or Spinning Off, Its Ortho Clinical Diagnostics Unit That Sells Clinical Laboratory Products

Any change of ownership in the fifth largest in vitro diagnostics company would represent a major development in the medical laboratory testing marketplace

Medical laboratory managers may see more consolidation in the in vitro diagnostics market if executives at Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) decide to sell its Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (OCD) unit. This decision was announced earlier this week during J&J’s conference call to discuss its fourth quarter 2012 financial report.

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics is considered the fifth largest IVD company. Thus, any sale or spin-off of this $2 billion enterprise will be a significant development for the clinical laboratory and pathology testing industry. (more…)

Lean and New Diagnostic Technologies Fuel Innovations at the Pathology Department at University of Nebraska-Omaha

Dark Daily gets tour of clinical lab and anatomic pathology activities

DATELINE: Omaha, Nebraska—This city may be in America’s heartland and best-known for corn-fed beef and billionaire-investor Warren Buffet, but its premier academic center clinical pathology laboratory is breaking new ground in several important ways.

Last Thursday, your Dark Daily editor was hosted for a site visit by the Department of Pathology and Microbiology at the University of Nebraska-Omaha (UNO). From adoption of digital pathology solutions to assertive use of Lean and Six Sigma techniques across the span of clinical laboratory and histology laboratory operations, advanced use of latest-generation medical laboratory testing technology was on display.

Using Lean and Value Process Maps in the Clinical Laboratory

Across the United States, every academic center Department of Pathology has activities and goals which distinguish it in specific ways when compared to other pathology departments. During this site visit, Dark Daily recognized three distinct laboratory management activities taking place in the clinical pathology laboratory at the 525-bed University of Nebraska Medical Center laboratory.

(more…)

Errors Outside the Clinical Laboratory Can Lead to Fatal Consequences for Patients

Guest Commentary by: Mark Graban

Clinical laboratory professionals and leaders should be reminded that their accountability for quality and patient safety does not end at the instrument or the microscope—at least from the general public’s perception and the needs of patients.

This summer, I was walking through Boston Common and saw a woman with a homemade sign with a message about patient safety. I stopped and asked about her sign. She reminded me it was July 25, the annual observance of National Patient Safety Day.

(more…)

;