Oct 6, 2014 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
The challenge facing medical lab managers and pathologists is to intelligently cut costs in their labs without laying off med techs, histotechs, and other lab scientists
By any measure, this year’s budget season is a tough one for the nation’s clinical laboratories and pathology groups. Most labs are scrambling to adjust to reduced reimbursement and directives from their parent hospitals and health systems to shrink their lab budgets for 2015.
It’s why smart cost-cutting tops the list of challenges at all medical laboratory managers and pathologists. Lab leaders need effective approaches to trim spending in their lab without the need to lay off skilled medical technologists and other experienced lab scientists. (more…)
Sep 3, 2014 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
It was national news when the FDA sent notice to Congress on July 31 that it planned to issue draft guidance on regulation of LDTs
After sitting in a state of suspended animation for several years, the Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) plans to regulate laboratory-developed tests are now front and center. On July 31, the FDA served the required 60-day legal notice to Congress that it was ready to move forward to issue rules for regulation of LDTs.
If the federal agency wanted to get the full attention of the clinical laboratory industry, it certainly succeeded. In the four weeks since the FDA alerted Congress of its plans for LDT regulation, there has been a flood of national news stories about this development. (more…)
Aug 4, 2014 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
To help medical laboratories understand how to deliver patient-centric lab testing services, the Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA) has launched its “Increasing Clinical Effectiveness” (ICE) program. CLMA President Paul Epner (pictured above) will be conducting a free webinar about the ICE program on August 12 and the details of ICE and the webinar can be found at the CLMA website. (Photo copyright CLMA.)
Increasing Clinical Effectiveness’ is the name of new initiative that CLMA is making available to all medical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups
There is now little disagreement that the U.S. healthcare system is in the midst of a transformation away from reactive and acute care and to proactive, integrated clinical care. This is why clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups across the nation now find themselves at a critical crossroads.
This trend presents medical laboratory managers, pathologists, and clinical chemists who lead the nation’s labs with an important question: When is it time to shift the lab’s focus away from its traditional “lab-centric” emphasis and position the lab as a “patient-centric” clinical service?
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Dec 16, 2010 | Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
Demand for Capable Medical Laboratory Managers Will Skyrocket In Coming Years
Much is written about the acute—and soon to worsen—shortage of medical technologists (MT) and other skilled positions in America’s clinical laboratories and pathology groups. But what gets constantly overlooked is the equally critical need to have capable clinical laboratory managers, supervisors, directors, and administrators at every level in the medical laboratory organization.
This situation creates an unprecedented opportunity for those up-and-coming med techs and laboratory professionals who aspire to a management career in their clinical laboratory. Demand for their services is assured. But before they can step into management positions that come with increased responsibility and higher salaries, they must have the training, the experience, and the maturity required to be an effective manager. (more…)
Oct 25, 2010 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratories and pathology groups must be ready to support physicians’ EMR adoption
In 2011, physicians can earn federal incentives for adopting electronic medical record (EMR) systems and demonstrating “meaningful use.” Every clinical laboratory and pathology group must be ready to deal with this new development. That’s because hundreds of thousands of physicians are about to embark on EMR implementation in their practices—with or without laboratory participation.
Meaningful use was the theme of The Dark Report’s audio conference conducted last month.
Three Experts on Clinical Pathology Laboratory Informatics
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers participating in the audio conference heard three national experts speak about how mass adoption of EMRs by the nation’s physicians would affect three specific areas of laboratory informatics. The audio conference was titled “How Meaningful Use and EMR Adoption Will Reshape Your Lab’s Competitive Future—and Its Profitability”.
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