Physicians Office Resource Volume 13 Issue 1 | Page 15

every point of healthcare delivery. Under these circumstances it is easy to recognize that laboratory medicine has a pivotal role, increasingly integral to many clinical decisions on disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management. The overall challenge for the laboratory profession is to adapt to these rapid changes, while maintaining quality service. A summary of these challenges include: • Increased scope of services offered, requiring changes in laboratory organization and communication, including workflow, scheduling, reporting policies, data transmission and storage; expanded relationships with other healthcare providers; integrated roles for information technologists; and increased direct interaction with the public. • New roles and responsibilities of the laboratory due to changes in healthcare delivery through integrated network organizations—Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and Patient Centered Medical Homes (PCMHs), integrating the laboratory as a part of team-based care • The need for updating policies and procedures to reflect this new paradigm of increased scopes of practice and involvement • New personnel requirements, recruitment and training to “ These times call for leadership that is more adaptive and agile than ever before... This is leadership that understands change, and can adapt through creating an organizational culture of resilience.” Irwin Z. Rothenberg ensure a competent workforce to meet these challenges. • Adjusting to the new age of patient empowerment: patient initiated testing; and test results reported and interpreted directly to patients. • Keeping up with the changing political and regulatory climate • Changing population demographics and the need for interventions for specific subsets of the population; use of big data influencing government resource allocation. Dealing with all these changes can be stressful for laboratory professionals. The clinical laboratory industry is already embracing networking, consolidation, integration, outsourcing, and creating additional value by providing knowledge services related to in vitro diagnostics. Clinical laboratory services are also increasingly defined by their value provided for patient outcomes. Already, there is evidence that ongoing technological developments have considerably improved the productivity of clinical laboratories. The next thirty years comprise a perfect storm scenario for laboratory medicine in terms of meeting professional staffing needs to meet these challenges: • Millions more people will be insured and able to access the healthcare system far more comprehensively than ever before, including laboratory services • Millions of baby boomers adding to the post-65 year old demographic, requiring more frequent and intensive healthcare, including laboratory services • Significant numbers of boomer clinical laboratory professionals are part of this retirement tidal wave, contributing to the shortage of available staff • The continued rapid development of advanced technology such as molecular genetics. requiring ever more sophisticated instruments and 15