NEWS OF THE ORDER by the New York State Department of Health (DOH) to close Peninsula Hospital Center in Rockaway for at least 30 days because of deficiencies in the hospital laboratory is slowly filtering throughout the clinical laboratory industry. (See pages 7-10.)

It was on February 23, 2012, when DOH issued an order for summary action against Peninsula Hospital and Guanghui Kong, M.D., Ph.D., who is shown on the 173-bed hospital's website as "Director, Pathology" and is believed to be the hospital laboratory’s Medical Director of record. In the order, DOH wrote that the laboratory’s state permitwas suspended for 30 days because deficiencies identified during DOH inspections on February 20 and 21 were of such nature that "the public health, safety and welfare is in imminent danger."

This is a significant event. It is uncommon for any state or federal agency to take actions which effectively shut down all or part of a hospital's clinical services due to deficiencies in the laboratory. Because these deficiencies in the lab were a major factor in the decision by the New York DOH to issue a 30- shutdown order, it is important for pathologists and laboratory administrators across the nation to get accurate information as to the circumstances that unfolded within this hospital laboratory.

In my view, this is an opportunity for leaders of the nation's various laboratory associations and societies. To date, press coverage of laboratory deficiencies at Peninsula Hospital Center have not been balanced by interviews with informed experts in laboratory testing and clinical laboratory management. That means the public has been left on its own to assess what risks to patient health were involved in this particular case.

That is why I ask you, dear reader, this question: "Would it not benefit the profession of laboratory medicine if an independent review team comprised of pathologists and laboratory scientists looked into the public facts of the case and issued a public report on its findings?"

I argue that such an independent review would provide the lab industry with a highly useful assessment of the problems within the laboratory of a hospital that was known to be struggling financially. At the same time, it would provide an opportunity for the profession of laboratory medicine to provide the public with an opinion independent of the New York DOH about the deficiencies and their potential to negatively affect patient care and health outcomes.

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Today's Lab Test Model Won’t Survive Reforms

Doing more testing to drive down unit costs doesn’t work when payers cut lab test prices

CEO SUMMARY: For more than three decades, independent lab companies have waxed fat by increasing their respective market share of lab test referrals from office-based physicians. This era is poised to end as growing numbers of officebased physicians begin to practice medicine within an accountable care organization (ACO) or similar new integrated care delivery model, while, at the same time, both government and private payers aggressively push down reimbursement for lab tests.

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NYSDOH Shuts Hospital Lab In Queens, New York

Hospital must stop admitting patients while laboratory has 30 days to address 66 deficiencies

CEO SUMMARY: When the New York State Department of Health closed the laboratory at 173-bed Peninsula Hospital Center in New York City on February 23, it became national news. State inspectors issued a nine-page list of deficiencies in the lab, including problems that could affect patient safety. The result of the order was that all patients requiring lab work needed to be moved out of the hospital, and the hospital could not admit new patients through the emergency department or by physician referral.

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QMS Helps Ontario Labs Cut Errors, Improve TAT

ISO 15189's Quality Management System (QMS) supports continuous improvement to lab services

CEO SUMMARY: In Brampton and Etobicoke, Ontario, the hospital laboratories of William Osler Health System are using the quality management system of ISO 15189 to stay ahead of two powerful trends. Combining the QMS with Lean methods allows the labs’ management and staff to continuously improve performance in four important dimensions: decreasing turnaround times, reducing or eliminating the systemic source of errors, boosting productivity of lab staff, and reducing costs across the laboratory.

RELATED: See Lab Quality Confab

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Dark Index: Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp Report Q-4, Full Year Earnings

Modest gains in revenue, volume, and operating profit reflect some contribution from lab acquisitions

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INTELLIGENCE: Late & Latent

HALFPENNY RAISES $2.25 MILLION

Jack Shaw will retire from Joint Venture Hospital Laboratories (JVHL)

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