Inpatient Admissions Decreasing; Implications for Hospital-Based Labs
I have commented previously about the decrease in the yearly number of hospital inpatients (see:Need for More"Disruptive" CEOs of Health Systems; What Does This Mean?; The Case of the"Disappearing Hospital Beds"; Implications for Pathologists). Evidence of this decline was provided in the following article: Trends in Hospital Inpatient Stays in the United States, 2005-2014. For the period 2005-2014, graphs in this article show that all types of inpatient stays declined by 6.6%, medical declined by 5.3%, and surgical defined by 12.0%. This trend continues unabated to this day (see:HOSPITAL AD...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 26, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Clinical Lab Testing Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Lab Industry Trends Medical Consumerism Point-of-Care Testing Reference Laboratories Telemedicine Source Type: blogs
Controversy at MSK Cancer Center Regarding the Pathology Archive and Database
A controversy has erupted at prestigious cancer centerMemorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) about the granting of exclusive access to its surgical pathology slide archive and database to a startup company, Paige.AI. It was been revealed in a recent NYT article that the hospital holds an equity stake in the company. There is also participation in the startup by some hospital insiders (see:Sloan Kettering ’s Cozy Deal With Start-Up Ignites a New Uproar). Below is an excerpt from the article: An artificial intelligence start-up founded by three insiders at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center debuted with great...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 24, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Digital Imaging in Pathology Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Ethics Medical Research Pathology Informatics Surgical Pathology Source Type: blogs
Life Insurance Company, John Hancock, Embraces Wellness with Success
Both health and life insurance companies have discovered how wellness programs can be used to attract and reward policyholders who pursue a healthy lifestyle (see:Wearable Health Monitoring Devices: a Means to Lower Insurance Costs?;Apple Watch"Gifted" to Insurance Policy Holders; Any Gotcha's with the Deal?).John Hancock is moving in this same direction as described in a recent article (see:John Hancock wants to turn life insurance into a wellness game). Below is an excerpt from it:The financial services company [John Hancock] said Wednesday that it will attach a free version of its wellness program,Vi...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 22, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Business Healthcare Innovations Healthcare Insurance Medical Consumerism Preventive Medicine Source Type: blogs
Health Systems Should Retain Control of Their Clinical Labs Including Outreach
There has been a trend a recent years for hospitals and health systems to sell their lab outreach businesses, often to one of the two largest commercial reference labs,Quest Diagnostics andLabCorp, and then outsource their lab services to the same company. There is some early evidence that this trend may now be reversing (see: IS THE JOINT VENTURE HOSPITAL LAB AN EMERGING TREND?). Below is an excerpt from the article:News of a new laboratory joint venture involvingProMedica Health of Toledo, Ohio, and Sonic Healthcare USA, of Austin, Texas, should be of interest to lab administrators and pathologists managing h...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 20, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Clinical Lab Testing Genomic Testing Healthcare Innovations Lab Industry Trends Lab Processes and Procedures Reference Laboratories Source Type: blogs
Some Valuable Lessons from the Theranos Fiasco
Now that Theranos iskaput, a number of articles have been published that attempt to extract useful lessons from the whole experience. Here is a good one: Bad Blood: 4 lessons from Theranos for IT leaders. Below is an excerpt from it:In “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup,” Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou tells the tale of the fraud that ultimately brought down Silicon Valley sensation Theranos, its CEO Elizabeth Holmes, and president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.....Reading between the lines, it also provides valuable leadership advice for CIOs about the nature of innovation and dis...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 18, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Clinical Lab Testing Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Hospital Executive Management Lab Industry Trends Medical Ethics Source Type: blogs
Comcast Uses Web-Based Services to Support Employees and Restrain Healthcare Costs
A recent article about the cable giant Comcast made the surprising point that the often reviled company has been surprisingly innovative in terms of the health plan that it offers to its employees (see:You ’ll Never Guess Which Company Is Reinventing Health Benefits). Part of the strategy of the company is the use of various apps including Accolade to improve the healthcare delivery process and value for its employees. Accolade provides personalized healthcare advocacy which is explained in the following way on itsweb site:Imagine the power in having an independent team of nurses, doctors and clinical s...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 13, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Quality of Care Telemedicine Source Type: blogs
Beaumont Health System Launches Multiple Urgent Care Centers in Metro Detroit
I have posted a number of previous notes about the growth of walk-in clinics located in retail drug stores (see:Details about CVS' MinuteClinic POCT Strategy;Details about CVS' MinuteClinic POCT Strategy) and also urgent care centers (see:Rapid Growth of Urgent Care Clinics; Cost Competition for Hospital ERs;Another Type of Urgent Care Facility Flourishing for Orthopedic Problems). I have also commented how hospital ER bills can mushroom by the addition of facility and out-of-network fees, often a surprise to patients (see:CMS Requires Hospitals to Post Prices for Medicare Patients; Useful Step?). As a result, walk...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 11, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Healthcare Business Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Innovations Hospital Executive Management Quality of Care Source Type: blogs
CVS Offers Telemedicine Visits for MinuteClinic Patients
I have posted a number of previous notes about the evolution of CVS's walk-inMinuteClinics that, along with urgent care centers, are having a significant impact on the first tier of healthcare (see, for example:Details about CVS' MinuteClinic POCT Strategy). The complexity of the services offered in these walk-in clinics continues to increase. For example, CVS has announced that their MinuteClinics will accommodate more patients with chronic diseases (see:Merged CVS and Aetna Will Move Toward a Community-Based Healthcare Model). Along these same lines, the company is now offering telemedicine (virtual care) visits ...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 8, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Telemedicine Source Type: blogs
Pathology Departments Should Consider Launching a Digital Pathology Outreach Program
For about five years, some academic pathology programs have launched surgical pathology consulting programs, often serving countries like China with a shortage of highly trained pathologists (see: China:Pathology Consults and Health Care Collaboration;China Struggling to Keep Up with Demand for Anatomic Pathologists). These initiatives were based on less robust digital pathology technology than now exists. They were also acceptable in the eyes of the FDA because they were secondary consultations to pathologists working abroad who were responsible for the primary diagnosis. This is in contrast to the current situation with ...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 6, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Digital Imaging in Pathology Food and Drug Administration Healthcare Information Technology Lab Industry Trends Lab Processes and Procedures Pathology Informatics Surgical Pathology Source Type: blogs
Health Systems Tackle Social Determinants for Patients; Is This a Suitable Strategy?
The notion of hospitals addressing"social determinants" of patients during care episodes is much in the news. A recent article described this approach as a key element in"complete care" (see: Complete care: Hospitals tackling social determinants set the course). Below is an excerpt from the article:[Health] [s]ystems adopting...unconventional approaches to managing chronic disease are becoming less unusual as the concept of addressing social determinants of health sweeps the industry. Income, education, employment, food security, housing stability and violence are all targeted factors to hel...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 4, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Business Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Insurance Hospital Executive Management Hospital Financial Medical Consumerism Preventive Medicine Public Health Source Type: blogs
