| R. Lewis Dark:
Lean Six Sigma Takes Root in Labs & Hospitals
LAST WEEK, MORE THAN 300 ENTHUSIASTIC LAB AND HOSPITAL PROFESSIONALS
from 11 different countries around the globe crowded into Atlanta for the
Second Annual Lab Quality Confab. They were gathered to hear the latest
success stories and breakthroughs in how laboratories and hospitals are
using quality management methods like Lean and Six Sigma.
If anyone remains skeptical about the value of Lean and Six Sigma to
improve outcomes and workflow in healthcare, more than 50 presentations
and case studies by some of America’s first rank laboratories, hospitals, and
health systems demonstrated the remarkable gains that well-executed
process improvement projects generated for their organizations.
Evidently I am not alone in believing in the value of Lean and Six Sigma
management methods to play a role in meeting the healthcare system's challenges
of improving quality, reducing errors, and lowering costs. The
demand for experienced Lean and Six Sigma professionals to work in the
nation’s hospitals and health systems is so great that management recruiters
are struggling to find candidates to fill these positions.Healthcare magazines
are writing stories about this staffing gap.
Our Editor, Robert Michel, tells me that this year’s speakers at Lab Quality
Confab displayed much more sophistication as they discussed improvement
projects in every area of clinical laboratory and pathology laboratory operations.
I take that as an early warning for those laboratories and pathology
groups which have yet to implement Lean and Six Sigma. The competitive bar
is being raised by your peers and colleagues! Just as GeneralMotors, Ford, and
Chrysler found themselves outcompeted by Japanese car manufacturers
(using these quality management methods) in the 1970s and 1980s, so also
will those labs and hospitals who are slow to understand the power of Lean
and Six Sigma to lift their performance—and their profits—find themselves at
competitive disadvantage in the laboratory services marketplace.
Across the American healthcare system, the pace of change and reform
seems to be intensifying. Adoption of Lean and Six Sigma by labs, hospitals,
and health systems is playing a major role in this transformation. In coming
weeks and months, THE DARK REPORT and Dark Daily will bring you "the best
of Lab Quality Confab" so you and your management team can learn from
these top-performing laboratories, hospitals, and health systems.
iTunes Business Model
For Digital Path Scans
Things heat up in digital pathology market
as BioImagene introduces 99¢ per slide pricing
CEO SUMMARY: If BioImagene's CEO is to be believed, the
company is ready to deliver a digital pathology system that is
robust and affordable, even in settingswith just two or three pathologists.
One key to the BioImagene strategy is “per scan” pricing
that avoids the need for upfront capital to acquire its system.
Confident investors just pumped $26 million into BioImagene and,
as of this month, its new CEO is a 20-year veteran of Siemens,who
was leader of its Image and Knowledge Management business.
Illinois Pathologists Dodge
Medicaid CP Payment Cut
Illinois Medicaid Program was prepared to end
payment for clinical pathology professional services
CEO SUMMARY: Pathologists in Illinois acted swiftly to this
month's announcement that the Illinois Medicaid program would
cease to directly pay pathologists directly for clinical pathology
professional services.The newpolicywas to take effect on October
1, 2008. As this issue of THE DARK REPORT goes to press, there is
breaking news that educational efforts by the Illinois Society of
Pathology have led the state's Medicaid program to rescind implementation
of the announced cuts to CP professional services.
LAB BRIEFS: MED TECH SHORTAGE
CAUSES DEVRY UNIVERSITY
TO OFFER MT DEGREE, VOLUME GROWTH
IN MOLECULAR TESTING
BOOSTS TWO PUBLIC LABS, CANCER LAB CLERK
FACES CHARGES
IN PATIENT ID THEFT
Implementation Date
For ICD-10 Is Proposed
Department of Health and Human Services
publishes ICD-10 launch date of October 1, 2011
CEO SUMMARY: Even though the transition from ICD-9 to
ICD-10 will not be required until 2011, laboratories and pathology
groups should have a transition plan in place. ICD-10’s 155,000
seven-digit codes will replace the 17,000 five-digit codes of ICD-
9. Because of major changes in the design of ICD-10, extensive
training of laboratory coders will be necessary to ensure a smooth
implementation. Referring physicians and their staff must also be
trained and ready for ICD-10 if labs are to minimize denied claims.
Phlebotomy Automation
Likely To Be Next Trend
Goal will be to reduce variation in outcomes
and raise the quality of individual work processes
CEO SUMMARY: Here's a prediction that automation of
work processes for phlebotomy, specimen collection, and
specimen transport may be the next trend. Unfolding developments
in the United States are creating a situation parallel to
what was seen in Japanese hospital laboratories more than
two decades ago—and led to the world's first automated solutions
for clinical laboratories. Another factor to enable this
trend are recent advances in technology and miniaturization.
INTELLIGENCE: Late & Latent
NANO BIOSENSORS
CAN DETECT
MICROORGANISMSADD TO: Biosensors | 
