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R. Lewis Dark:
Recognizing Laboratory Leadership
WHEN LABORATORY CORPORATION OF AMERICA CLOSES ON THE SALE and becomes
the owner of DSI Laboratories, Inc., of Fort Meyers, Florida, it will mark the
end of one of the nation’s oldest hospital laboratory outreach programs.
I consider this to be a good news/bad news story. The good news is that
DSI’s owner, NCH Healthcare System, is selling its lab outreach program for
between $40 million and $89 million and will use that cash to further its
mission in patient care. The bad news is that an energetic, independent laboratory
organization, founded in 1984, becomes the latest casualty in the
ongoing consolidation of the American laboratory industry.
Before DSI Laboratories disappears as an independent, regional laboratory, I
would like to recognize its CEO, Paul Gotcher, for his achievements. During his
tenure at the helm of DSI Labs, Gotcher has demonstrated a knack for developing
a vision, then guiding his laboratory team toward achieving that vision.
Of particular importance to the entire laboratory industry was Gotcher’s
guts to be one of the very first in the United States to introduce Lean and Six
Sigma techniques into the heart of the hospital laboratory: its high volume core
laboratory. During 2002 and into 2003, a DSI team at 400-bed Naples
Community Hospital applied Lean and Six Sigma techniques to reengineer
work flow in specimen collection, specimen transport, and specimen processing.
A Lean work cell was created in automated chemistry and hematology. This
nine-instrument cell, staffed with nine med techs at peak periods, post-Lean
could be operated by one med tech—although two med techs were typically
scheduled. Of equal importance, average test turnaround time from receipt in
lab dropped 51%, to just 35 minutes. (See TDR, September 8, 2003.)
Gotcher has long experience with hospital laboratories and outreach programs.
In the 1990s, he was CEO of Sonora Laboratory Sciences in
Phoenix, Arizona. Later, as an executive at ARUP Laboratories, Inc., in Salt
Lake City, Utah, he worked with client hospitals throughout the United
States to help them develop inpatient and outreach laboratory services.
In fact, were LabCorp to be serious about developing effective joint ventures
and collaborations with hospital laboratories, it couldn’t do better than
to bring Gotcher into its executive ranks, give him a boost in pay, and listen
to his recommendations on how to develop win-win business relationships
with hospital-based laboratories.
LabCorp Buys Hospital Outreach Lab in Florida
National lab company acquires an improved market presence along Florida’s West Coast
CEO SUMMARY: Once again, a national laboratory has seized
the opportunity to acquire a strong regional laboratory. This time
it’s the sale of DSI Laboratories, Inc., of Naples, Florida, to
Laboratory Corporation of America. DSI’s owner is NCH
Healthcare System, which owns two hospitals in Naples. Terms of
the deal were not revealed. LabCorp will buy the outreach testing
assets of DSI, and NCH will retain the inpatient laboratories.
DSI Sale Shows Value Of Lab Outreach Program
LabCorp’s acquisition of DSI Laboratories confirms a number of laboratory industry trends
CEO SUMMARY: For other hospital laboratory outreach
programs, the pending sale of DSI Laboratories, Inc., of Fort
Meyers, Florida, to Laboratory Corporation of America provides
useful insights about the market value of these programs.
Applying general formulas for determining a sales price, DSI
Labs’ $40 million in yearly revenue may have fetched between
$40 and $89 million for its owner, NCH Health System.
$18 Million Judgment For Errors by Laboratory
Unclear test requisition led to confusion
between laboratory and ordering doctor
CEO SUMMARY: In a wrongful birth lawsuit, a high-risk pregnancy
physician in New Jersey requested a cytogenetics test on a
pregnant mother, but LabCorp’s cytogenetics lab never did the test.
After the baby was born with myotubular myopathy—the same
deformity the mother had sought to prevent—she sued and won a
jury verdict in her favor against her high-risk pregnancy doctor,
LabCorp, and LabCorp’s cytogenetics lab director.
NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW: Global Laboratory Trends Dominated
By Rising Costs and Labor Shortage
CEO SUMMARY: Recently, THE DARK REPORT conducted a roundtable interview
with executives of Dade Behring. Present were Jim Reid-Anderson,
Chairman, President and CEO; Donal Quinn, Chief Operating Officer; and
Mark Wolsey-Paige, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer. Topics discussed
ranged from domestic and global trends in the clinical laboratory industry to
evolving business strategies in the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) industry—and
Dade Behring’s responses to these developments. The interview was conducted
by Editor Robert L. Michel.
INTELLIGENCE: Late & Latent
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