| R. Lewis Dark:
Building the Better Mousetrap for Lab Outreach
IS THERE A BLUEPRINT for building a thriving, successful hospital outreach
program in a new market? If so, it would certainly be a best seller among
hospitals seeking new sources of revenues and profits from outreach testing.
While it's not exactly a blueprint, Pathology Associates Medical
Laboratories (PAML) of Spokane, Washington, has developed both a
unique strategy and the “better mousetrap” for hospitals wanting to create a
new lab outreach program or significantly expand an existing outreach program.
At the same time, PAML demonstrates that it is possible to build a
series of long-lasting laboratory joint ventures with hospitals—joint ventures
that grab market share from national labs and return ample cash distributions
to their partners.
This is significant for the laboratory industry. Lab executives universally
recognize that hospital laboratory outreach programs can consistently compete
with the best laboratory companies in the nation. That is, if they are
properly capitalized, professionally managed, and good at both service and
sales. What PAML has figured out is a way to offer precisely those four
things to hospitals willing to partner with it in a laboratory joint venture.
Seen from this perspective, the newly-formed laboratory joint venture
between PAML and two hospitals of the MountainStar Health Network in
Salt Lake City, Utah, is the latest validation of PAML’s vision and business
strategy. (See TDR, November 19, 2007.) As you will read in our interview
with PAML executives on pages 10-16, PAML invested gobs of money on
service enhancements and integrated software solutions that allow it to provide
world-class levels of service to referring physicians—and install this
same service infrastructure into its different laboratory joint ventures.
I believe PAML is creating a new business template for laboratory joint
ventures between hospitals and independent lab companies. Its success over
the past 12 years with multiple laboratory JVs indicates that the business
model has staying power. But can other independent laboratories emulate
the more successful aspects of PAML's approach to developing and managing
laboratory JVs? If they can, then the stage would be set for more hospitals
and health systems to participate in such laboratory outreach joint
ventures. As that happened, it would also increase the number of local laboratory
testing options for patients and physicians.
Busy Year Demonstrated
By Top Ten Lab Stories
Lab industry’s Top Ten Stories for 2007
point to accelerating change in coming years
CEO SUMMARY: As it turns out, 2007 has been an actionpacked
year with lots of events, plenty of changes, and the promise
of even faster evolution across all sectors of the lab testing
marketplace. THE DARK REPORT'S “Top Ten Lab Stories of 2007”
show the full intensity and pace of activity within laboratory medicine.
One big driver in these events is the tidal wave of investment
money flowing into diagnostics and lab testing. It is a time
of high expectations and confidence in the future of lab medicine.
Newsmaker Interview: How PAML Built a Major Business
In Lab Joint Ventures with Hospitals
CEO SUMMARY: Earlier this month, MountainStar Healthcare Network
of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories (PAML)
of Spokane, Washington, announced a new laboratory joint venture, called
MountainStar Clinical Laboratories, LLC. Two things are notable about this
development. First, because MountainStar Healthcare Network is owned by
Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), it represents a significant step by that
for-profit hospital company to further expand its laboratory outreach programs.
Second, with this agreement, PAML extends its track record as a joint
venture partner in multiple laboratory outreach programs. In fact, not in two
decades has the lab industry seen an independent laboratory company
become a “serial joint venture partner” with so many different hospitals and
health systems. In this exclusive interview with PAML CEO Thomas Tiffany,
Ph.D., and Chief Marketing Officer Noel Maring, TDR Editor Robert L. Michel
investigates the reasons behind PAML’s success in creating lab joint ventures.
Lab Market Trends: Medicare Demo Bidders' Meeting
Reveals Many Problems Ahead
Integrated In Vivo-In Vitro:
Is It Pathology’s Future?
Molecular pathologists and radiologists
will share integration successes on February 5-6, 2008
CEO SUMMARY: Across the globe, forward-thinking pathologists
and radiologists are taking steps to use molecular technologies
in ways that combine in vivo and in vitro testing. As this
happens, traditional roles for pathology and radiology are likely
to evolve toward a more integrated diagnostic service. To learn
more about this trend, Molecular Summit 2008 is bringing
together the first movers in molecular imaging and molecular
diagnostics to share early successes and lessons learned.
INTELLIGENCE: Late & Latent
TRANSITIONS: ARUP AND MORE
INVERNESS BUYS
PARADIGMHEALTH | 
