Integrating lab services for cost efficiency

This article focuses on Sun Health, parent company of Boswell Memorial Hospital (Sun City, AZ), and Del E. Webb Memorial Hospital (Sun City West, AZ). Boswell, in a survey of 3,600 acute care facilities by KPMG Peat Marwick, was ranked as the most cost-effective hospital in the nation; Webb ranked sixth. A contributing factor to the efficiencies at both non-profit hospitals is the technology used in the laboratory. This article discusses the need for healthcare officials to look beyond bottom line figures to understand the important role that technology in the lab can play. Using the advantages of technology allows the lab to provide information quickly to patient care providers, allowing them to make clinical decisions. Having the information in a timely fashion can help reduce the length of patient stay and allow for faster processing through the ER.