Improved Quality of Care as the Major Goal for the Merger of Pathology and Radiology

I recently returned to the topic of merging pathology and radiology after a thirteen year hiatus (see:Increasing Interest in Merging the Specialties of Pathology and Radiology). This caused me to reflect on the question of why this idea has remained dormant despite the fact that (I believe) it's worthy of serious consideration. This question, in turn, caused me to think about the factors that serve as incentives for major changes in hospitals and healthcare. I came up with the following four drivers for change emanating from either the C-suite or hospital physician leadership. These factors may operate singly or in combination with each other.Anticipated high profit margins for some new line of business such as cancer immunotherapy.Political and financial events such as hospital mergers and acquisitions.Changes in the regulatory landscape mostly at the federal level such as the mandate to deploy EHRs linked with federal subsidies.New science, technology, and innovation leading to new programs. Knee and hip replacement come quickly to mind in this category.Note that I have omitted from this list the pursuit of quality in healthcare. When creating the list, I was reminded of discussions I have had over the years with various hospital executives. All told me that they would support new quality initiatives as long as there was minimal budget implications. The drift of their arguments was that it's the physicians and nurses who drive quality through their daily decis...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Clinical Lab Testing Diagnostics Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Business Healthcare Innovations Hospital Financial Lab Industry Trends Quality of Care Source Type: blogs