DIME Case Study
Ancillary services refer to the health care services provided exclusive of room and board. Supplies and laboratory tests provided under home care, ideology, durable medical equipment (DIME), ambulatory surgical centers (ACS), home infusion, hospice care, skilled nursing facility (SIN), cardiac testing, mobile lithography, fitness center, radiology, pulmonary testing, sleep centers, and kidney dialysis are examples of ancillary services. Without ancillary services doctors, dentists, and nurses will not be able to function effectively.
Gangs, 2009) Ancillary services can be classified into three disgorges such as diagnostic, therapeutic and custodial. If a physician sends a patient for a blood test, then s/he is using a diagnostic ancillary service. Service received from a physical therapist for proper exercise routines after repairing leg bone is called therapeutic ancillary service. Service taken from nursing home is called custodial care ancillary service. (Gangs, 2009) Doctors, dentists, and nurses are the primary healthcare providers that are ordinarily thought of first when patients think of healthcare.
However, ancillary services providers far outnumber the primary are providers in healthcare.
(Commerce Business Daily, 1999) Without ancillary services doctors, dentists, and nurses would not be able to function effectively. Ancillary services generally fall into three broad categories: diagnostic, therapeutic and custodial. The laboratory services (Lab) which will be the subject of this case stud falls under the diagnostic side of ancillary services category. (Commerce Business Daily, 2001) Ancillary services such as laboratory can be located in a variety of medical treatment settings, in both in and outpatient settings.
For instance, in the capital, laboratory services are used within various departments throughout the treatment facility. The same services used in massive treatment centers can also be located in a physician’s private practice, either as another office in the building or the hysteria can sometimes perform their own ancillary services.
For instance, the physician who has lab equipment their practice is able to perform lab services in their practice, rather than sending his patients to another facility to have their service performed.
A clinical laboratory function as a facility designed for the illogical, microbiological, serological, chemical, immune-homological, homological, biophysical, cytological, pathological, or other examination of materials derived from the human body for the purpose of providing information for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of any disease or impairment of, human beings. Clinical laboratory services, 2013) These examinations also include procedures to determine, measure, or otherwise describe the presence or absence of various substances or organisms in the body.
Facilities only collecting or preparing specimens (or both) or only serving as a mailing service and not performing testing re not considered clinical laboratories. (Clinical laboratory services, 2013) Some of the key players in a medical lab include pathologist, clinical biochemist, pathologists’ assistants, biomedical scientist, medical laboratory technician, and phlebotomy’s. Commerce Business Daily 2001) A pathologist is a physician who examines tissues, Checks the accuracy of lab tests, and interprets the results in order to facilitate the patient’s diagnosis and treatment in some cases.
They normally work closely with the patient other providers and is a vital member to the patient’s primary health care team. Pathologists work in many areas of the medical laboratory and often serve as the Lab Director. (Commerce Business Daily 2001) They have significant educational requirements that include completing medical school, residencies, and possibly fellowships. (Commerce Business Daily 2001) A minimum of three years of undergraduate study is required for medical school admittance; most applicants have earned bachelor’s degrees (www. L’s.
Gob). Clinical biochemists carry out complex analytical work much like those of the pathologist. They analyze and Interpret data relating to patients’ samples to assist with the investigation, diagnosis ND treatment of diseases. Clinical biochemists work with other health professionals, such as pathologist, to detect changes in the complex biochemistry of body fluids, for example, increases in glucose levels in diabetes mellitus. They also develop and implement new techniques, interpret results and liaise with and advise clinical staff.
They are responsible for the evaluation and quality assessment of diagnostic tests and play a role in developing and managing hospital and community analytical services.
Biochemists commonly work in research capacities that are related to biological systems and organisms. Commerce Business Daily 2001) This can include the study of a wide variety of topics; include living tissue, molecules, and genetic patterns. Typically, these professionals work in laboratories conducting experiments n order to analyze the results.
While some entry-level positions can be obtained with only a bachelor’s or master’s degree, a Ph. D.
Is commonly required for research positions. (Commerce Business Daily 2001) A pathologists’ assistant is an intensively trained allied health professional who provides anatomic pathology services under the direction and supervision of a pathologist. A pathologists’ assistant is qualified to do all the work leading up to (but not including) diagnosis – including tissue banking, gross examination of surgical pathology specimens, and complex surgical resections and autopsies. Commerce Business Daily 2001) medical scientists work in healthcare and carry out a range of laboratory tests and techniques on tissue samples and fluids to help clinicians diagnose diseases. They also evaluate the effectiveness of treatments. Their work is extremely important for many hospital departments and the functions they carry out are wide ranging.
For example, they may work on medical conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, AIDS, malaria, food poisoning, or anemia, or carry out tests for emergency blood transfusions or to see if someone has had a heart attack.
Biomedical scientists tend to specialize in one particular area. (Commerce Business Daily 2001) A biomedical scientist needs to study in the field of biology and especially in the context of medicine. The education provided should help the individual to gain knowledge on the vital principles of how a human works and should also make them aware about treatments to cure various diseases. A biomedical scientist needs to have a bachelor’s degree in the field of medicine with knowledge in biomedical equipment and supplies. Commerce Business Daily 2001) Hospital lab technicians process tests on body fluid specimens such as urine, blood and stool samples.
These are often used to screen patients for disease or determine an appropriate course of medical treatment for a specific illness. A postsecondary degree is almost always mandatory ROR hospital lab technicians; many states and individual employers also require licensee and certification, respectively. (Commerce Business Daily 2001) Phlebotomy’s are medical professionals who draw blood from patients for various lab tests and procedures.
Nurses also commonly perform phlebotomy, and hospitals and medical offices will often hire additional staffs that are trained in phlebotomy. A high school graduate or college student could take a course at a local technical or location school and learn phlebotomy.
(Commerce Business Daily 2001) Ancillary healthcare services include a broad array of services that supplement or support the care provided by hospitals and physicians, including laboratories, dialysis centers, ere-standing diagnostic, non-hospital surgery centers, as well as durable medical equipment such as orthodontics and prosthetics, and others.
Almost all departments Nothing a medical treatment facility will at some point need ancillary services. Communication is one of the organizational functions that help a medical facility to stay efficient and productive and provide quality patient care. One of the more important forms of organizational communication is inter-departmental communication. The importance of communication between different departments in an hospital becomes most evident when that communication breaks down.
An example of this kind of breakdown is when labs are not properly labeled before being taken to the Lab.
Accurate and efficient communication between departments like the Emergency Department (DE) builds trust within the organization such as En a request for blood is asked and the correct blood type is given. When departments trust each other to deliver accurate information, this eliminates the extra fact-checking step that can slow down patient care. (Hospital laboratory integration celebrated, 2012) Automation is a trend that seems to be quickly spreading through the world of clinical labs.
This trend of routine clinical laboratory Nor that generally done at work stations and through software to program instruments, already exists for basic hospital laboratory routines. Some hospital laboratories have started using these automation tools and services of fully functional robotic systems to replace Jobs that were or are done by skilled employees that take them away from other duties that they could be performing.
Laboratory automation and the growing (Connotation, Plebian, 2010) emergence of robotics have transformed the typical workday for many individual lab employees.
They can also accomplish the tasks with less hands-on intervention than ever before. As a result, associate scientists and technicians who used to spend their days performing tasks of tedious repetition now have the time work with patients and spend time on task that require more of their attention. (Connotation, Plebian, 2010) At the facility level, and particularly for hospitals involved in clinical diagnostics, automation and robotics have significantly increased productivity and lowered costs. Form administrators point of view these hospitals, squeezing the maximum efficiency out of every apartment is a constant issue.
Another trend that is found in the ancillary service of the laboratory is outsourcing. To face the economic pressures arising from the current socio-economic conjuncture, hospital laboratories are endangered by an increasing trend towards the outsourcing of clinical laboratory tests to external laboratories. This should allow hospitals to meet their economic requirements, but Ninth an increased risk of loss of medical quality and, mid- to long-term, loss of cost effectiveness to healthcare at the national level.
To anticipate current developments economical and technological that inevitably will affect the future of laboratory medicine, hospital laboratories should be proactive and enhance efficiency, reduce costs by consolidation, integrate into regional networks, and form alliances or partnerships. To create additional value, the core competency of laboratory professionals must be refocused to provide medical knowledge services consultative support to clinicians related to in vitro diagnostic testing.
To integrate cost-efficiency Math medical quality, implementation of a matricidal organization – operational vs.. Biomedical level – could be an interesting approach. This integrated structure should create total quality of laboratory testing, managing the entire medical diagnostic cycle from the pre analytical to post analytical phase. (Pratt.
2006) Although many hospital now realize the power of automation, however from a healthcare administrator prospective automation makes since because it allows technicians to do more and not be forced stand and perform tedious task.
Thus it make use of the human resources however, some administrators may have a hard time discerning Inch automation system are effective and which are not for their hospital or medical agility. In order to mitigate the negative impacts medical treatment facilities need to be more selective about what labs to order and how much time it would take and how long it would take a tech away. (Connotation, Plebian, 2010) The steady increase in the use of outsourcing in healthcare centers has led hospital administrators to ask and require that their providers and physicians be more reluctant about sending patient to other facilities do to cost.
