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In Focus
The Lean healthcare institute promotes effective operations in the healthcare industry through the use of quality management methods. The overriding goal of the institute is to impart this innovative knowledge to the healthcare professional through a simplified and proven approach. |
| Product & Services Guide 2010-11
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Greetings!
This month Nexus consultants have been in the UK, Germany, Canada and across the U.S. to stay on top of new technology. Some of this laboratory technology is in the form of automation, instruments and methods, but evolving just as quickly are the information systems that connect it all together. This edition's main article focuses on the information that the lab manager needs in order to better manage the lab operation. |
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Events
LHI classes are open for October.
Nexus will be at the AABB in Baltimore in October. Look us up! |
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Embracing Smartphone Technologies within the Diagnostic Laboratory: Applying LEAN Principles to Develop Dynamic Applications by Jared Williams
September 15, 2010
With the influx of smart-phones to the global market, it will only be a matter of time before they begin to appear as functional solutions within the laboratory environment. Sales of iphones, Blackberries, Androids, iPads and other application-based devices are at record levels and make information access easier. The true value to the laboratory lies within the applications that will be created for these devices. Laboratory management and diagnostic vendors must collaborate early in their creation in order to maximize both their reception to the end user and their overall effectiveness.
The primary function of the lab is to deliver a timely and quality test result. How each lab completes the processes between obtaining the sample and the ultimate result determines how efficient and cost effective the laboratory operates. When developing applications for the labs, vendors and lab personnel should keep LEAN principles in mind.
LEAN applications should address cost reductions through the elimination of the following common laboratory wastes:
1. Over-processing/Overproduction (too many testing steps, paperwork, QA checks, careless reagent waste)
2. Excessive Inventory (order supplies/reagents not according to demand)
3. Waiting (instrument testing lags, IT systems, large batches, communications)
Others...
Read Full Article |
Tools of the Trade
Total Cost of Operation (TCO) is an important tool used in the laboratory business. Using activity-based costing techniques, the TCO approach will help in making correct lab decisions such as choosing between two different automated plaforms.
Activity-based costing (ABC) is a methodology that measures the cost and performance of activities, resources, and cost objects and then assigns the cost according to the product's consumption[i]. This ABC approach, popular in manufacturing and other industries for many years, has been applied effectively in healthcare diagnostics and offers a way to better monitor and understand the actual costs of operation.
Contact Nexus for more information.
[i] Judith J. Baker, Activity-Based Costing and Activity-Based Management for Health Care (Gaithersburg, Maryland: Aspen Publishers, 1998), 2, 365. |
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Service in Focus: Lab Optimization
Nexus has extensive experience in working with lab management and healthcare companies at all levels to implement the continuous improvement philosophy: from better patient turnaround times to improved accounts receivables. Also, Nexus has extensive laboratory design experience. We have assisted hundreds of lab operations through the design process, creating lab designs that fit the Lean operations mold and maintain sound logistics. Contact us for any needs. |
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