Aug 19, 2013 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
Clinical laboratories and pathology groups are deploying customer relationship management tools as a way to deliver more value to physicians and other providers
Healthcare’s accelerating shift away from fee-for-service payment and toward value-based reimbursement presents new challenges to clinical laboratories and pathology groups. These new payment models motivate providers to seek strategic partners who can deliver added value.
To succeed in this paradigm, clinical laboratories must differentiate themselves. This will require effective management of client relationships. Labs will soon need to do much more than simply process medical test orders and send lab results back to referring physicians. In fact, early-adopter lab organizations are accomplishing these goals by using client relationship management (CRM) tools.
To serve these lab organizations, vendors are bringing customized CRM tools to market. Unlike the generic customer relationship management products of past years, these next generation CRM products are tailored to meet the complex needs of healthcare organizations. CRM systems that are customized to the needs of clinical laboratories and pathology groups are now available.
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Apr 24, 2013 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Manhattan Labs is an early-adopter of the trend toward increased use of lab-specific CRM solutions with the goal of gaining competitive advantage
To improve its competitive position in the tough clinical laboratory testing market of New York City, one medical laboratory company has implemented a cloud-based, lab-specific customer relationship management (CRM) service that delivers real-time information to its sales team in the field and its operations team in the lab.
This is consistent with an important trend gathering momentum within the clinical laboratory industry. That trend is the use of middleware and similar informatics solutions that serve up detailed information about the performance and operation of the lab in real time. Typically, these informatics solutions support real-time management dashboards.
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers recognize that good client relations can be the difference between retaining and losing clients—and the revenue associated with their medical laboratory test referrals.
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Dec 27, 2011 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Using monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies to detect only human blood in stool, this technology compares favorably when tested against other methodologies
New diagnostic technologies are literally tumbling out of research laboratories and biotech development companies at an increasing pace. The sheer volume of proprietary medical laboratory tests and new molecular diagnostic assays makes it a challenge for pathologists and clinical laboratory managers to identify which new lab tests have the greatest clinical value—and will also be adequately reimbursed by payers.
Each time a clinical laboratory wants to bring up a new medical laboratory test, it requires substantial effort. The laboratory will expend substantial financial, clinical, and operational resources to acquire the instrumentation, run the studies needed to validate the test, and begin the process of educating physicians about the value of the new test and how to use it in their medical practice. (more…)
Dec 20, 2011 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Recent reports show why labs need more robust laboratory information systems (LIS), including a shrinking workforce, new requirements to connect to EMRs in hospitals and physicians’ offices, and the development of health information exchanges.
Clinical laboratories nationwide are realizing they need new and more powerful laboratory information systems (LIS) as they seek to process larger volumes of medical laboratory tests with a shrinking number of medical technologists and clinical laboratory scientists.
In response to the critical shortages of MTs, CLSs, and other laboratory scientists, most clinical laboratories are beefing up automation in all areas of the lab. From the high-volume core chemistry/hematology laboratory to microbiology and histology, laboratory automation systems are becoming ubiquitous. But all this lab automation increases the need to use information technologies to manage both automation and the flow of specimens through the laboratory.
A report published earlier this year by Kalorama Information of Rockville, Maryland, actually links the shortage of skilled medical laboratory staff as one of the most important factors in fostering growth in the LIS market. Researchers estimated the size of the LIS market at $800 million and predicted that it would grow about 6% annually for the next few years.
As pathologists and clinical laboratory managers know, labor accounts for more than 60% of the cost of producing medical laboratory test results. The Kalorama report stated that laboratory automation and better information management systems can reduce the number of manual procedures and tasks in the typical medical laboratory, In turn, this helps optimize labor efficiency, said the report titled, Laboratory Information Systems (LIS / LIMS) Markets. (more…)
Jun 3, 2011 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Medical laboratories advised to regularly update capabilities in integrated health informatics
During this first year of federal incentives for adoption of electronic health records (EHR), large numbers of hospitals and office-based physicians are actively developing an informatics strategy for their organizations. As these providers acquire and deploy EHR systems, clinical laboratories and pathology groups will need to deliver a robust LIS-to-EMR interface that seamlessly handles medical laboratory test orders and lab test results reporting.
Yet, even as providers install new EHR systems, many enabling technologies in computer hardware, software, wireless, and mobile computing devices are gaining capabilities at a startling rate. “These rapid improvements in information technology create a new level of risk for those clinical laboratory administrators and pathologists who have responsibility for their medical laboratory’s information technology strategy, and the operating of their lab’s IT department,” stated Gai Elhanan, M.D., M.A., Chief Medical Information Officer at Halfpenny Technologies, Inc., based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.
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