Skip to main content
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Digital Health
    • Transformation
    • ESG
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Blogs
    • AI
    • Deals
    • Layoff Tracker
    • HIMSS 2023
  • Opinion
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • From the Editor
  • Events & Awards
    • Awards
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • 40 Under 40
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
      • - Leaders to Watch
    • Women in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Women Leaders
      • - Women to Watch
    • Digital Health Transformation Summit
    • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - AI and Digital Health
    • - Future of Staffing
    • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
  • Multimedia
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • Sponsored Video Series - Checking In with Dan Peres
  • Data & Insights
    • Data & Insights Home
    • Hospital Financials
    • Staffing & Compensation
    • Quality & Safety
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Data Archive
    • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
    • Surveys
    • Data Points
  • Newsletters
  • MORE+
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Care Delivery
September 09, 2020 04:29 PM

4 ways hospitals are improving COVID-19 testing lab efficiency

Steven Ross Johnson
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Modern Healthcare Illustration / Getty Images

    Clinical laboratories were quickly overwhelmed by increased demand as COVID-19 swept the U.S., leading public health departments and private labs to suffer long delays in returning results.

    Several hospitals decided to rely on their own in-house labs to expedite the process, and those decisions came with their own growing pains.

    Providers told Modern Healthcare what they learned about scaling up capacity and maintaining a successful testing lab operation amid the pandemic.

    1. Be flexible with lab protocols and staff

    At the start of the pandemic, many hospital labs were forced to develop their own COVID-19 tests as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention faced delays rolling out the first approved test.

    Dr. Karen Kaul, chairwoman of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Ill., said a lot of the initial work was done "on the fly" as they cross-trained lab personnel to support molecular lab staff as they scaled up capacity.

    Being nimble was key to making the transition work, Kaul said. While molecular lab technicians did the more difficult aspects of developing the tests, other staff helped with sample preparation and clerical tasks.

    "Redefining roles quickly made an enormous difference in keeping some people who were being underutilized busy and also allowing our staff to get the work out," she said.


    2. Diversify testing platforms to address supply chain challenges

    Labs have seen shortages of testing materials including reagents, swabs, kits and chemicals as COVID-19 testing fails to slow down. Hospital labs normally seek to use a single testing method or platform to get a unified set of results.

    But that rigidity would force many hospital labs to shut down if they can't get the materials they need. To address potential shortages, some providers have been using several different COVID-19 testing platforms and switching methods when they run low on some materials.

    CommonSpirit Health chose three different testing platforms from three different vendors to avoid shortages or issues if one system failed, according to Karen Smith, vice president of laboratory services.

    The health system got its vendors to commit to providing certain volumes of tests so they couldcomplete10,000 tests per day, Smith said.

    "There are vendor limitations, and I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket," Smith said.

    3. Maintain a quick test result turnaround time

    Material shortages aside, hospitals and individuals have experienced delays in receiving test results. While turnaround times started at three or four days, they have crept to a week or more as labs had difficulty expanding quickly enough to meet demand.

    The slow return rendered some coronavirus tests useless as diagnostic tools, since some asymptomatic patients would leave isolation earlier than recommended and potentially spread the virus.

    By contrast, hospital labs have generally been able to process and get admitted patients their results within 24 hours.

    NorthShore's average turnaround has been a couple days even when they processed up to 1,800 tests per day. Establishing a centralized testing system helped maintain efficiency, according to Kaul.

    The health system also developed smaller capacity testing instruments at each of its hospitals for situations where they need quicker test results, such as for psychiatric patients in the emergency department or for those being admitted for high-risk medical procedures.

    "Having both the large throughput testing and the small number of tests that need to be turned around very quickly is really ideal," Kaul said.

    4. Establish stronger collaborations between laboratory, clinical and administrative personnel

    Six months of COVID-19 has reminded hospitals they need strong, in-house laboratory capacity to maintain patient care, Kaul said. The labs provide up to 70% of the data in a patient's electronic health record.

    "We're so behind the scenes that we're often forgotten unless there's a problem," she said.

    Since that start of the pandemic, NorthShore has held frequent multidisciplinary team discussions on how to deploy new tests.

    The key to a successful testing lab is providing ongoing, predictable testing that staff can rely on, according to Dr. Dwayne Breining, executive director for Northwell Health Labs. In March, Northwell Health was one of the first systems in the country to begin mass COVID-19 testing of its patients. It scaled up capacity within a month, from completing 100 tests to more than 1,000 a day.

    Hospital labs should have clear, expected goals supported by leadership, according to Smith. CommonSpirit recently opened a new laboratory hub in Arizona that Smith said will triple the health system's capacity to process COVID-19 tests. The new facility will ultimately focus on precision medicine after the pandemic lapses.

    "We made the decision that was a long-term strategy for CommonSpirit Health that just got moved up by a few years," Smith said.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    crowd of people
    Facing an uncertain future, industry leaders get creative with care delivery
    988 illustration
    National 988 mental health hotline back up after widespread service outage
    Most Popular
    1
    Centene to lay off 2,000 workers
    2
    How health systems are battling price-gouging allegations
    3
    Senate advances bill to temporarily aid hospitals, health centers
    4
    Elevance, Blue Cross Louisiana halt $2.5B proposed deal
    5
    Tower Health to sell urgent care centers, close others
    Sponsored Content
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Help Center
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Digital Health
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • ESG
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Blogs
      • AI
      • Deals
      • Layoff Tracker
      • HIMSS 2023
    • Opinion
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • From the Editor
    • Events & Awards
      • Awards
        • Nominate/Eligibility
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • 40 Under 40
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Excellence in Governance
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top Innovators
        • Diversity in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
          • - Leaders to Watch
        • Women in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Women Leaders
          • - Women to Watch
      • Conferences
        • Digital Health Transformation Summit
        • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - AI and Digital Health
        • - Future of Staffing
        • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
      • Webinars
    • Multimedia
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
      • Sponsored Video Series - Checking In with Dan Peres
    • Data & Insights
      • Data & Insights Home
      • Hospital Financials
      • Staffing & Compensation
      • Quality & Safety
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Data Archive
      • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
      • Surveys
      • Data Points
    • Newsletters
    • MORE+
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing