Leverage the Lab

For a higher performing Health System

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Red Purple Gradient
Red Purple Gradient

Health systems are being challenged to do more with less

Abbott is working with laboratories across the world to leverage their capabilities to enable health systems to meet a sustained rise in chronic illness, increased demand for personalized medicine and changing care models, as well as healthcare staffing shortages by achieving operational efficiency and integrated clinical care excellence.

Leverage the Lab for a Higher Performing Health System’ explores these collaborations, and the successes that laboratories have achieved across four key areas: patient care pathways, early disease detection, human resources and staffing and cost savings.

Patient Care Pathways
Early Disease Detection
Human Resources and Staffing
Cost Savings

Find Out How to Leverage Your Lab for Measurably Better Healthcare Performance

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woman in lab image
woman in lab image

Connecting Patients to Appropriate Care

Health systems across the globe are dealing with overcrowding in hospitals, caused by a range of challenges, including diminished hospital capacity and treating growing and aging populations.1 Overcrowding is leading to increased:

  • Wait times
  • Length of stays
  • Adverse events

Laboratories are helping health systems reduce overcrowding through the implementation of novel patient pathways and increased efficiencies.

Chapter One: Successful Innovation of New or Improved Pathways to Appropriate Care

Core Diagnostics at Abbott supports laboratories by evaluating their operations to identify opportunities to increase efficiency with a personalized total solution, such as a reduction in patient length of stay.

Length of stay for suspected cardiac patients, from arrival to discharge, reduced from 23.0 to 9.6 hours at the ROYAL WOLVERHAMPTON, NHS2

Efficient identification of undiagnosed patients 

Undiagnosed disease places an additional burden on already-stretched health systems and on an individual patient’s health. Earlier disease identification and treatment can:3,4

  • Increase primary care appointments
  • Reduce visits to emergency departments
  • Lower overall healthcare costs

The lack of disease awareness and access to appropriate treatment can impact timely treatment and lead to further disease spread, high morbidity and mortality. Laboratories are supporting earlier detection of disease, in areas such as improved linkage to care.

CHAPTER TWO: earlier disease detection to ultimately reduce the burden on health systems

To increase identification of undiagnosed patients and connection to care, the University of Alabama has rolled out an opt-out program, where emergency department patients are tested for HCV and HIV and guided to appropriate clinical pathways unless they specifically opt-out.

91% reduction in average days between testing and initial medical appointments to receiving HCV treatment At the University of Alabama5

Automated Manual Steps

Worldwide, laboratories and health systems are struggling to attract and retain medical technologists.

  • 7% expected increase in demand for laboratory technologists in US6
  • Just 3% of laboratories in the UK are sufficiently staffed to meet needs7
  • Retirement rates incresed from 9% in 2012 to 17% in 20188

In an attempt to address these staffing challenges, many systems are paying high levels of overtime costs, hiring contractors and outsourcing work, resulting in higher costs to meet the testing service needs of their clinicians. Abbott is partnering with laboratories to progress performance management, optimising existing staff operations and mitigating unnecessary additional costs.

CHAPTER THREE: RESULTS FROM leveragING innovative solutions to meet human resource and staffing challenges

Streamlining and automating burdensome tasks, such as maintenance and calibration enables staff to dedicate more time to technically demanding activities.

Two staff members ENABLED to process 1.8MM (38% of annual lab volume) on the third shift Supported by the Alinity ci-series at the Navicent Health Center9

Reducing expenditure and increasing operational efficiency 

Diagnostic testing volumes are growing across the globe, driven by aging populations and rising prevalence of chronic illness. These demographic trends, when combined with changing care models and reimbursement changes, are causing significant budget challenges:

  • In the UK, the underlying deficit in hospital trusts reached £5bn in 201810
  • In the Netherlands, top hospitals are achieving operation margins of just 1.8%11
  • The US Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) aims to reduce laboratory spending by 15% year-on-year12 

Laboratories are utilizing Abbott’s end to end solution to drive cost reductions across the health system by reducing operating expenditures.

CHAPTER FOUR: reducing expenditure across the health system, while increasing operational efficiency

Abbott is collaborating with laboratories to reduce expenditure by optimizing and automating workflows.

Annual savings of $31,408 with consumables Achieved at the Center for Molecular Diagnostics in Moscow with Abbott's AlinIQ Analyser Management System (AMS)13

Find out how to leverage your lab for measurably better healthcare performance

Contact your Representative from Abbott to start formulating a strategic transformation plan that addresses both operational excellence and integrated clinical care in your laboratory. 

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REFERENCES
  1. Long EF, Mathews KS. The Boarding Patient: Effects of ICU and Hospital Occupancy Surges on Patient Flow. Production & Operations Management.2018;27(12):2122-2143. doi:10.1111/poms.12808 
  2. Integrated Clinical Care Strategy Improves Emergency Patient Flow, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.
  3. Hepatitis C Treatments Give Patients More Options. https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumerupdates/hepatitis-c-treatments-givepatientsmoreoptions. Accessed October 7, 2021.
  4. Selected National HIV Prevention and Care Outcomes. National Center for HIV/AIDs, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/library/slidesets/cdc-hiv-prevention-andcareoutcomes.pdf. Accessed October 7, 2021.
  5. Enhanced Identification and Care for Patients with Undetected HCV and/or HIV via Opt-Out ED Screening with Active Education and Linkage to Care. University Alabama Birmingham Hospital Birmingham, Alabama.
  6. Bureau Of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). Clinical Laboratory Technologists and Technicians. Retrieved May 24, 2021, from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/clinical-laboratorytechnologists- and-technicians.htm#tab-6tch.
  7. Meeting Pathology Demand: Histopathology Workforce Census; 2018. https://www.rcpath.org/uploads/assets/952a934d-2ec3-4809-a8e6eoofcda7oof/Meeting-PathologyDemand-Histopathology-Workforce-Census-2018.pdf.
  
  1. Edna Garcia E al. The American Society for Clinical Pathology’s 2016-2017 Vacancy Survey of Medical Laboratories in the United States. American Journal of Clinical Pathology. 2018;149(5):387–400.
  2. Case Study: Navicent Health, Achieving Sustainable Growth Through Continuous Improvement. Full Fact Team. Spending on the NHS in England. Full Fact. Published July 9, 2019. Accessed June 3, 2021. https://fullfact.org/health/spending-english-nhs/.
  3. Full Fact Team. Spending on the NHS in England. Full Fact. Published July 9, 2019. Accessed June 3, 2021. https://fullfact.org/health/spending-english-nhs/.
  4. Allen S. 2020 Global Healthcare Outlook. 2019. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/za/Documents/life-sciences-health-care/za-2020-global-health-care-outlook.pdf. Based on Deloitte analysis of hospital annual reports.
  5. Pama regulations. CMS. (n.d.). Retrieved May 24, 2021, from https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee for-ServicePayment/ClinicalLabFeeSched/PAMA-Regulations.
  6. Case Study: Center for Molecular Diagnostics, Central Research Institute of Epidemiology.