Outreach Education

In a competitive outpatient testing market, choosing a laboratory is discretionary. With the goal of becoming the laboratory of choice for discretionary outpatient testing, it no longer matters if it is called “inreach” or “outreach.” While these terms may be decent descriptors for a process, they do not begin to describe the true value of this critical community laboratory activity. The value of a laboratory outreach program spans all areas of relevance for a health system. Through supporting clinical integration and community health initiatives, the laboratory is a critical element, enabled and supported by a successful outreach activity.

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.

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 creating a positive customer service experience in the outreach laboratory.

In this episode of Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ “Leveraging the Laboratory” podcast, host Jane Hermansen, outreach manager at Mayo Clinic Laboratories, talks with Andrew Tofilon, director of marketing at Mayo Clinic Laboratories. They discuss integrated marketing strategies for the outreach laboratory.

In this episode of Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ “Leveraging the Laboratory” podcast, host Jane Hermansen, outreach manager at Mayo Clinic Laboratories, talks with Nikola Baumann, Ph.D., co-director of the Central Clinical Laboratory and Central Processing Laboratory at Mayo Clinic. They discuss specimen challenges that may arise within an outreach laboratory and strategies for quality management.