Impact of cost cutting on laboratories: new business strategies for laboratories

Cost reduction is the primary force driving healthcare reform. To survive and thrive in these tumultuous times, laboratories must adapt and implement new business strategies. Business paradigm shifts create opportunities for organizations with a plan; a wait-and-see attitude forecasts failure. Drawing upon an 11-year experience with the "ARUP business model," this work will highlight business strategies that have contributed to the success of this university-based reference laboratory. In the future, successful laboratories will implement new business strategies to become more effective members of the emerging integrated healthcare delivery teams. Within the laboratory, traditional organizational disciplinary boundaries, i.e., chemistry, microbiology, and hematology, are melding together to increase efficiency. Laboratorians must become influential members of institutional healthcare delivery teams formed to control utilization. Laboratory services are being adjusted to optimize patient care. Incremental pricing is only one of the strategies to be implemented to expand outpatient business to those in the region. Expanded computer capabilities, client services, specimen handling, marketing, and sales are also required. On a regional basis, service laboratories are increasingly joining forces to increase efficiency while at the same time improving the quality of patient care.