In 2017, to Offset Declining Reimbursement and Shrinking Budgets, Savvy Clinical Laboratories Are Using LEAN to Improve Service and Intelligently Cut Costs

Sep 21, 2016 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations

Nation’s most experienced lab operations managers, cost-cutters, and Lean experts will gather to share successes and proven ideas at Lab Quality Confab on October 18-19, 2016 Most hospitals and health systems are in the first stages of developing their budgets for 2017. Clinical laboratory administrators and pathologists at these institutions report three common factors are driving the next budget cycle: falling reimbursement, flat or declining inpatient admissions, and directives to cut their...

When Cost-Cutting in the Clinical Pathology Laboratory Collides with Effective QA/QC: How Savvy Labs Sustain the Accuracy and Quality of their Lab Test Results

Sep 4, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Digital Pathology, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily

As medical laboratories struggle to reduce costs and squeeze their budgets, it is essential that the lab’s quality assurance/quality control program is run properly to protect and enhance the analytical integrity of lab test results When does budget cutting in a clinical laboratory begin to undermine the accuracy and analytical integrity of the medical laboratory test results produced by the laboratory? This question is apparently a subject of much discussion within some lab organizations...

American Hospital Association Says Medicare’s Value-Based Purchasing Could Put Hospital Revenue at Risk

Mar 26, 2012 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement

Where hospital margins to be squeezed, that would place hospital laboratories under greater budget constraints Hospitals are honing in on Medicare’s new value-based purchasing program quality metrics in an effort to improve patient care—and earn reimbursement rewards. Clinical laboratory managers and pathologists will want to track implementation of this program, because it is one further step forward in Medicare’s plan to move away from fee-for-service reimbursement. As part of its effort to...

ISO 15189 Proves to Be a “Hot Topic” for Clinical Pathology Laboratories at Lab Quality Confab

Nov 3, 2010 | Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily

Quality management systems (QMS) attracts plenty of attention on day one of this conference DATELINE: San Antonio, Texas—ISO 15189 Medical Laboratories was clearly a hot topic yesterday at the Fourth Annual Lab Quality Confab and Process Improvement Institute. Almost every session devoted to quality management systems (QMS) and ISO 15189 had a standing-room-only audience. Here in San Antonio, about 250 clinical laboratory managers and pathologists from several different countries have gathered...

Lab Industry’s Quality Gurus Gather and Share Best Practices

Oct 1, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily

Growing interest in Quality Management Systems (QMS) surfaces at Lab Quality Confab DATELINE: ATLANTA, GA—From nine countries around the world, several hundred clinical laboratory and pathology quality experts gathered in Atlanta this week for the third annual Lab Quality Confab. Dominating the sessions are impressive success stories from laboratories using Lean, Six Sigma, and similar quality management approaches. Today is the last day of this high-energy gathering. At least two valuable...