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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Apr 11, 2011 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
MLO and The Dark Report award scholarship to Medical Technologist from Uganda
During the next five years, experts predict a significant turnover of senior executives and administrators in the nation’s clinical laboratories and pathology groups. One big reason why this will occur is the surge of retirements expected as members of the baby boomer generation turn 65.
That makes it ever more important for all medical labs to prepare their next generation of clinical laboratory managers . That is also the goal of a unique collaboration between Medical Laboratory Observer (MLO) and The Dark Report. Each year, for more than five years, the two publishers have teamed up to offer a full scholarship to the Executive War College on Laboratory and Pathology Management. This scholarship includes travel and hotel expenses.
Scholarships for Clinical Laboratory Managers
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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…)
