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

Two U.S. Studies Show Home-based Hospital Care Lowers Costs while Improving Outcomes and Patient Satisfaction

Aug 8, 2012 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations

Studies show home-based hospital acute care results in fewer medical laboratory and diagnostic tests

Home-based hospital care (HBHC) is a care delivery model that is evolving at a rapid pace. To be effective, HBHC must improve patient outcomes while avoiding the expenses associated with an inpatient stay at a hospital.

However, significant growth in the number of patients treated in home-based hospital care programs would directly affect hospital-based clinical laboratories and pathology groups. Among other things, this would reduce the volume of inpatient testing while increasing the number of outpatient/outreach specimens.

Evidence is accumulating in favor of HBHC. New research shows that a New Mexico home-based hospital care (HH) program demonstrated cost savings and equal or better patient outcomes and patient satisfaction for acutely-ill patients compared to similar patients receiving in-hospital care. These new findings affirm similar results from a 2005 study of HBHC. (more…)

Clinical Laboratory Tests as a Commodity: Why Government Health Programs Won’t Spend More

Jul 29, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology

Speakers from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada provide useful prospectives


Too often, pathology laboratory testing is treated as a commodity by government health officials in the United States and other countries. But treating lab testing as a commodity has negative long-term consequences for health systems which try to pay the cheapest price for medical laboratory testing.

As pathologists and clinical laboratory managers know all too well, clinical pathology laboratory testing delivers incredible value when physicians order the right test and do the appropriate thing with the lab test results. Examples abound where proper use of laboratory testing contributes to improved patient outcomes while reducing the overall cost per episode of care.

(more…)

;