Gaining staff support for laboratory outreach.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Attitude of Health Personnel↗
Biomedical subjects
D L Nigon
Publications and source records attributed to D L Nigon.
Economics of outreach testing in the hospital laboratory: Part II.
This discussion of the decision points and results in the development of three hospital outreach programs continues with two case studies--a small hospital (50 beds) laboratory in a rural community and a failed outreach program in a 100-bed hospital in a community of 50,000. Guidelines and basic requirements for launching an outreach program are also provided.
Costs and Cost Analysis↗
Initiating a regional laboratory network.
Wherever we look--on television, in national and local newspapers, or within our own institutions and communities--the biggest issue facing health-care providers is integration. The Clinton plan virtually mandates integrated services, and many individual states are moving ahead rapidly with their own programs. Mandated purchasing alliances will require network services that are focused on cost savings and broad access to the medical system. The incentive to form collaborative medical networks defies our tradition of actively competing for patients and reimbursement dollars. Hospital and physician office laboratories, along with small independent laboratories, face both their greatest challenge and their best opportunity in the changing health-care environment. Those choosing to take up the gauntlet thrown down in the Clinton Administration's commitment to reform will be uniquely positioned to survive and thrive; those who dig their heels firmly into past paradigms will be swept away by the tide of economic change. Whether mandated by law or forged into being by the heat of economic pressure, the formation of integrated care networks positioned to vie for health-care dollars seems inevitable. Some states, including Florida, Washington, and Minnesota, have already passed legislation that anticipates national reform by virtually mandating integrated health-care services. Others are contemplating similar action, and the economic impact is already apparent in a lower-than-projected increase in health-care costs. How can community laboratories position themselves to participate in this rapidly changing environment? Most experts agree that laboratory services must roll themselves into total health-care programs and operate regionally to compete with the national, for-profit conglomerates.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
Economics of outreach testing in the hospital laboratory: Part I.
Hospital laboratories are faced with the dilemma of needing to maintain a baseline of testing and staffing to meet patient and physician needs while facing personnel shortages, declining reimbursement, and excess personnel and equipment capacity. Because cost cannot be reduced past some basic minimum, laboratories must find ways to increase test volumes to use the excess capacity intrinsic in the system. One solution to this dilemma is to increase the number of outpatient tests performed by developing an outreach program. If carefully managed, this solution can improve productivity, allow laboratories to operate with a lower inpatient reimbursement infrastructure, and begin to balance the uneven economic equation faced by many laboratories. This two-part article presents three case studies that illustrate decision points and results in developing a hospital outreach program. In Part I, a case study for a 300-bed hospital in a rural community is presented.
Ambulatory Care↗
Sales skills for health-care professionals: the emotional side of sales.
Health-care sales continues to be an area of opportunity for many laboratory professionals. For those who possess the necessary skills and the desire to enthusiastically embrace the unique challenges of a sales career, a new CLMA publication by CLMR contributor Donna L. Nigon, MT(ASCP), titled Sales Skills for Health-Care Professionals, will provide the knowledge of sales structure and techniques needed to succeed. This Sales Skills excerpt, "The Emotional Side of Sales," describes many of the emotional aspects of sales and selling, including how to handle the transition from a technical or medical role to that of sales representative, relationship building, maintaining personal and professional support systems, dealing with rejection, avoiding burnout, time management, and customer concerns. For more information about this book, please see the order form that accompanies this excerpt, or visit www.clma.org.
Burnout, Professional↗
A case study in laboratory outreach program development.
This article chronicles the 18-month development of a laboratory outreach program from its first conception by hospital administration to full implementation of services to the local community.
Alabama↗