Articles

With all the preparations required to ready a clinical laboratory for regulatory inspection, it can be easy to overlook offsite testing locations, especially those performing CLIA-waived tests. Hospital laboratories with a CLIA Certificate of Compliance or Certificate of Accreditation may also oversee waived testing sites, and it is important to remember that those locations have as much potential for citations as the larger testing departments. Remember to give these five key areas special attention during inspection preparation.

Sales is a vital component of a thriving laboratory outreach program. It requires a unique skill set and a dedicated focus on advocating the value of your laboratory and its ability to deliver reliable, high-quality services to your community. A sales call — an essential sales tactic — can be the difference between a new customer and a lost opportunity, so planning for them is critical.

Patients want to use a laboratory that is easy to work with, and there are different definitions of “easy.” Ultimately, health systems want to have the patients they serve use their health system laboratories. If patients are choosing to go elsewhere, the laboratory should review and respond to several key patient experience factors.

Marketing is an essential discipline of any successful laboratory outreach program. While specific marketing goals and audiences will differ for every program, most of them will certainly involve driving awareness and growth. A strong partnership with the organization’s marketing team will allow the laboratory to capitalize on the organization’s brand, connect with customers, and generate business. For a busy laboratory, the first step in marketing is often knowing where to focus the team’s valuable resources. Here are some practical marketing strategies any outreach laboratory can apply.

This fall, healthcare professionals and laboratory outreach enthusiasts will travel to Chicago to attend Mayo Clinic's annual conference, "Leveraging the Laboratory." Outreach manager Jane Hermansen along with outreach solution strategists, Ellen Dijkman Dulkes and Brianne Newton, are excited to extend a warm welcome to fellow colleagues and peers. This year's conference will be held in the Windy City for the first time, promising an exceptional experience for all participants.

When considering the outreach laboratory value stream, it is important to remember that without quality, there is no value. Through identifying sources for error or non-value-added activities, the hospital laboratory outreach program can rise above and demonstrate value through customer service, physician support, and patient care.

As healthcare continues to evolve and payment models become more inclusive of patient satisfaction measures, it is vitally important for laboratories to focus on improving the patient experience. Because the laboratory is a critical element in the continuum of care, the outreach program provides a necessary mechanism to enhance the patient experience and provide strengthened relationships in the future.

Managing a successful hospital-based laboratory in today’s economic climate requires leaders to anticipate challenges, navigate obstacles, and develop creative approaches to unusual circumstances. The Mayo Clinic Laboratories outreach team explains the top five current trends happening in the laboratory industry.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) should be a part of every laboratory’s quality improvement plan, and that includes outreach-specific KPI metrics. Financial, internal-facing, and client-facing KPIs for outreach programs help to create a scorecard that allows a laboratory to continuously monitor and enhance its service.

In this episode of Mayo Clinic Laboratories “Leveraging the Laboratory” podcast, host Jane Hermansen, outreach manager at Mayo Clinic Laboratories, talks with outreach solutions strategists Ellen Dijkman Dulkes and Brianne Newton about supplies. Having appropriate supplies is the critical first step in collecting and preserving specimens.

Having an efficient and effective supply provision program is a cornerstone for laboratory outreach program success. By providing adequate specimen collection supplies in compliance with current regulations, the outreach laboratory-customer relationship is certain to succeed.

Faced with a population increase and the need to expand both laboratory testing capacity and capabilities, Yuma Regional Medical Center leaned into its relationship with Mayo Clinic Laboratories to gain insights to strengthen community ties, attract new providers, and positively impact patient outcomes.

On this episode of Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ “Leveraging the Laboratory” podcast, host Jane Hermansen, outreach manager, returns with outreach solutions strategists Ellen Dijkman Dulkes and Brianne Newton to chat about National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, April 23–29.