Planning future hospital laboratory services: using benchmarks to evaluate laboratory operational and organizational strategies.
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Clinical Laboratory Techniques↗
Biomedical subjects
B Portugal
Publications and source records attributed to B Portugal.
Benchmarking hospital laboratory financial and operational performance.
The movement toward more integrated delivery systems requires hospital administrators, medical staffs, and health care network organizations to consider strategies that will meet the future challenges facing laboratory services. Many health care experts predict that the number of hospital inpatient days, staffed acute care beds, and length of stay will continue their precipitous decline, and then stabilize during the next four to five years. Hospitals should carefully evaluate how their laboratories might be affected as a result of the decline in inpatient services and the integration of health care services at all levels. Hospital executive management must find a way to manage staffing levels and technical resources in order to maintain quality patient services in the face of declining test volume. This Special Report discusses relevant benchmarks intended to help hospital administrators and laboratory directors identify "best practices" in hospital laboratories so that comparisons of patterns of care and financial operations can be made. Benchmarking the relative financial and operational performance of hospital laboratories allows health care planners to design the most appropriate laboratory services delivery system for future hospital inpatient and outpatient market demands. Factors influencing financial and operation performance will be investigated, including utilization, testing costs, staffing mix, productivity, and organizational structure. This will be followed by a discussion on the future of laboratories and the trend toward regional laboratories owned by hospital consortiums.
Clinical Laboratory Techniques↗
Joint ventures with pathologists touted.
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Hospital Departments↗
Strategic planning for outreach laboratory services.
Whether operating under short-term TEFRA regulations, or a longer-term prospective payment system in hospitals, pathologists are now evaluating alternative opportunities for developing incremental revenue. One viable alternative is the entry into the commercial reference laboratory market from a hospital laboratory. This article deals with the strategic business and marketing planning necessary to operate effectively in this competitive environment.
Hospitals↗
Factors influencing relative financial performance of hospital laboratories. Economic comparisons to measure performance.
When factors that drive hospital laboratory costs are clearly understood, administrators and laboratory directors can make more informed, comprehensive decisions about the laboratory's future. If internal laboratory operations cause higher-than-average relative costs, department managers can work toward improving productivity, efficiency, and decisions about purchased products/services. If, however, external factors, such as unusually high laboratory utilization and service-level expectations of the medical staff cause higher-than-average relative laboratory costs, hospital administration and laboratory managers can determine whether those external factors can be modified to reduce laboratory costs without adversely affecting patient care.
Clinical Laboratory Information Systems↗