Taiwan’s Containment of COVID-19 Outbreak Demonstrates Importance of Rapid Response, Including Fast Access to Clinical Laboratory Tests

Mar 23, 2020 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations

By taking early measures to combat the spread, the country had a medical laboratory test for COVID-19 available as early as Jan. 24, and was able to focus medical laboratory testing on the most at-risk individuals With the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak dominating headlines and medical laboratories under growing pressure to increase testing capacity, Taiwan’s rapid response to the pandemic could provide a critical model for other countries to follow. Given its proximity to...

CDC Ranks Two More Drug-Resistant Microbes as ‘Urgent Threat’ to Americans; Clinical Laboratories Are Advised to Increase Awareness of Antimicrobial Resistance

Mar 20, 2020 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily

In a separate study, HHS finds a 40% increase in sepsis cases, as more patients succumb to infections without effective antibiotics and antimicrobial drugs Given the drastic steps being taken to slow the spread of the Coronavirus in America, it’s easy to forget that significant numbers of patients die each year due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), other forms of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and in thousands of cases the sepsis that follows the infections. This is why the Centers for...

Proteomics May Hold Key to Understanding Aging’s Role in Chronic Diseases and Be Useful as a Clinical Laboratory Test for Age-related Diseases

Feb 3, 2020 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, Precision Medicine

Researchers are discovering it’s possible to determine a person’s age based on the amount of protein in the blood, but the technology isn’t always correct Mass spectrometry is increasingly finding its way into clinical laboratories and with it—proteomics—the study of proteins in the human body. And like the human genome, scientists are discovering that protein plays an integral part in the aging process. This is a most interesting research finding. Might medical laboratories someday use...

Federal Advisory Committee Seeks Public Comments on Revising CLIA Regulations, says Keynote Speaker at 13th Annual Lab Quality Confab in Atlanta

Oct 16, 2019 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily

At The Dark Report’s annual Lab Quality Confab for clinical laboratory administrators, managers, and quality team members, experts outline how disruption in healthcare requires labs to improve processes and cut costs ATLANTA, Oct. 15, 2019—Clinical laboratory professionals have a chance to advise the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on how the federal government could revise the regulations under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA). That’s...

Kaiser Family Foundation Survey Finds Hospitals in West Coast States Incur Highest Daily Expenses when Providing Inpatient Care

May 13, 2019 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology

US hospitals typically spend $2,424/day to provide inpatient care, according to the KFF report  How much does the average hospital spend/day to provide inpatient care? The numbers vary widely, but the latest statistics from Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) State Health Facts show West Coast states incur the highest daily operating and non-operating inpatient costs. This disparity in spending is unlikely to surprise medical laboratory executives working in hospital settings. They know...