Lab Information System

There is no doubt that healthcare professionals universally recognize the critical importance of accurate lab testing. The idea that a patient receives the right test at the appropriate time and an accurate diagnosis promptly following that test is a fundamental part of patient care. Yet according to a recent Institute of Medicine Study, over 50% of patients reported that information necessary to their care wasn't available when it was needed. And another 25% reported that their healthcare... read more

I‘m really amazed when I sit in on prospect calls and hear very successful labs talking about their existing processes for managing their service. There’s been so much innovation in the service industry, but the lab industry has some catching up to do. With the macro trend of the commoditization of the lab market, the time to change is now! If you can’t compete on price, then isn’t it imperative that you deliver service excellence? I hear stories of Client Services groups who log their client... read more

"Fighting fire with fire." Above is a term we have all heard at one point or another. But, have you ever thought it could apply to the healthcare industry? Let's breakdown what many provider organizations will face in 2013: Fire #1: The rising cost of care We are now seeing new payment structures that focus on quality and outcomes, rather than quantity. This has caused a frantic rush for many healthcare organizations to understand the true cost of care across the continuum as opposed to just in... read more

In a recent article titled "Three Healthcare IT Trends for 2013" by Connie Bensen of Smart Data Collective, three key trends are introduced and broken down to determine the future adoption of these technologies in the healthcare industry. Why are these trends important? All three will affect your lab's acessibility to business and clinical intelligence that help your lab proactively address client issues and improve the overall quality of your patient-centered care: 1. Increased mobility for... read more

I recently read an excellent post on CloudTweaks that conveyed five major advantages healthcare organizations stand to gain by transitioning their services to the "cloud".   Five major advantages every lab stands to gain by taking advantage of cloud computing are:   1.    Collaboration. In many cases specific information may be needed in two or more places at once by different individuals within the lab and across various health services providers. Through cloud technologies, the information... read more

hc1.com and its CEO and Founder Brad Bostic are featured in the Feb. 2013 edition of Medical Laboratory Observer. Bostic writes about, "Achieving 100% accountability: How healthcare CRM drives action and resolves issues."  Bostic outlines the three ways that a lab CRM (customer relationship management solution) enables medical laboratories to provide the highest level of service to provider clients by:

• Gaining Operational Efficiency
• Viewing the Health of Each Client Relationship
• Taking Action to...

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In the not too distant past, physicians offices and hospitals maintained a paper folder - called a "chart" - for each patient who received care.  There were many obvious limitations to this approach and many healthcare providers replaced paper charts with computers that could store patient records.  A combination of paper charts and basic in-office computerized record keeping still exists today.   Paper charts and in-office computers are rapidly being replaced by today's EHR systems which not... read more

Gartner Research., a division of Gartner Inc., the world's leading information technology research and advisory company, has coined the term “The Nexus of Forces” to describe four forces — mobile, cloud, social, and information. These forces have converged in a powerful way that has led to a new era of computing. They identify three disruptive vendors (Amazon, Apple, and Google) who have taken advantage of the Nexus of Forces to create innovative products. Allow me to introduce hc1.com as a... read more

Warning...Blue sky. In a recent article by The Dark Report titled, "CDC Surveys Doctors Use of Laboratory Tests" physicians identify challenges associated with lab testing ordering and result interpretation. One common thread among most primary care, unless employed by a big health system, is the sheer number of different EMR's they can select. Some are just "waiting it out" for retirement while others are forgoing the fed incentive and will deploy prior to the fed penalties. The issue for labs... read more

"Why are healthcare providers, including clinical laboratories and pathology groups, so slow to recognize and adopt the same service innovations developed by non-healthcare industries?" Dark Daily poses this question in its recent article, "Institute of Medicine Report Finds Healthcare Management Lags Behind Other Industries." The article highlights some of the findings from a recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, which shows that when it comes to quality, outcomes, cost, and equity,... read more

In my previous post, I touched on what makes hc1 Academy, hc1.com's Healthcare Relationship Management training program, different from your traditional implementation process. New clients receive an exclusive and personable experience that teaches them how to navigate and fully utilive the healthcare CRM and lab business intelligence features of our solution. The hc1 Academy is:

• Proactive
  • Your project team will be introduced to our training team within the earliest stages of your activation...

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Ready to access real-time intelligence in ways that your lab never thought possible? hc1 Healthcare Business Intelligence (hc1 BI) enables your lab to gain instant visibility into essential outcomes and trends via customizable, user-friendly charts and graphs that can be accessed at the click of a button. Quickly pinpoint key trends Spend valuable time identifying key trends and creating an action plan rather than managing endless spreadsheets and reports. Make decisions with confidence Help key... read more

Along with the government's thrust to shift from quantity-based to quality-based, accountable healthcare in the United States, the current administration is pushing a new system that would solicit patients to report "medical mistakes". Here is an excerpt from the recent NY Times article on this topic: The Obama administration wants consumers to report medical mistakes and unsafe practices by doctors, hospitals, pharmacists and others who provide treatment. Hospitals say they are receptive to the... read more

I have made some deliberate observations over the past few months and continue to be amazed by the rapid change that is being "forced" upon the laboratory industry! Below are my "top 10" items that will directly impact how the laboratory industry will function for the future (in no particular order).

• Meaningful use
• Reimbursement reduction
• Healthcare reform (impacting individual consumers, businesses, Medicare, Medicaid)
• Ease of switching laboratory providers
• ACO's
• Acquisitions
• Stiffer competition
• Privat...

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Modern Healthcare recently included a guest post from Rick Schooler, CIO of Orlando Health, that really resonated with me.  It is great to see an IT leader conveying the powerful value healthcare cloud computing delivers to the business and highlighting the parallels between the advent of the PC (circa 1984) and the advent of cloud computing in healthcare.  While some people embraced PC's, others rejected them because they wouldn't be contained within the confines of the corporate IT... read more

By Jason Wolfgang Times, they are a changin’.... These words seem to be as true today as ever before. Newspapers? Don’t need them. Local Television? Seemingly on the way out.  Staples in the way we consume information are changing at a staggering pace. What are the trends? How do we discern what drives our profitability tomorrow? Of course, Healthcare isn't immune to the changing times. Here too we see new trends in how lab executives consume information with lab management tools. Instantly... read more

In an article titled, "Ten Trends in Business Intelligence and Analytics that Are Transforming Healthcare" by David Stodder of TDWI Research, 10 trends are analyzed to show how healthcare organizations need to use information to reach strategic and policy objectives. Various quotes are included in this article from experts in business intelligence for labs and healthcare management solutions: "The future is going to depend on how well we can combine data and converge on single or integrated... read more

Recently hc1.com hosted a webinar with CEO Doug VanOort of NeoGenomics, and posed a simple poll question: What is the number 1 obstacle standing in the way of your laboratory achieving 100% retention?  Doug gave 5 specific examples of how to achieve 100% retention, while the answers from over 100 laboratories who attended the webinar were all over the board.  The five options for the poll were the following:

• Client issues were not escalated until it is too late
• Lack an effective way to measure...

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It is fairly expensive to maintain a hospital lab right? Just think about it for a moment, all of that specialized testing equipment in the hospital lab is expensive and costly to maintain and generally hospital labs maintain a smaller pool of potential clients. What about the labor costs and all the supplies and reagents that have to be purchased to perform lab tests? The downward pressure on hospital labs is daunting to say the least. Consider this…the most modern testing equipment in a... read more

When I meet with clinical reference labs and anatomic pathology labs, it is fairly obvious early in the process whether or not they are open to embracing new ideas and new technologies that help with gaining better visibility into critical lab analytics. There is a clear line of delineation between labs that are positioning their organizations for success versus those who are not. What makes one medical laboratory better than the other?  Is it because they are more passionate about their lab... read more