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Press Start: Lead an Empowered Life as a Clinical Laboratorian

Stop the Flu Madness
September 24, 2009 11:43 AM by Glen McDaniel
As we approach the flu season there are lots of questions about influenza testing and horror stories about a looming epidemic or pandemic. Patients are flooding doctors' offices and emergency departments, and clinicians are demanding widescale testing; Read More...
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APHL Asks For Help With HIV Algorithms
September 16, 2009 5:24 PM by Glen McDaniel
Back in 1989, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) issued a firm algorithm for diagnosing HIV; an algorithm that is still in use today as the gold standard. The patient is tested Read More...
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Competition for Joint Commission-Finally!
June 7, 2009 5:27 PM by Glen McDaniel
For years the Joint Commission has been the accreditor of hospitals including all its departments (including laboratories). Although many are not aware of it, even hospital laboratories accredited by CAP (College of American Pathologists) are also reviewed Read More...
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Keeping up With the Swine Flu Pandemic
April 27, 2009 5:17 PM by Glen McDaniel
You cannot turn on the TV or log onto any popular website like AOL without being greeted by the latest update on the swine flu pandemic. Over the weekend, I spoke with friends who were planning a vacation to Mexico next week and are now concerned about Read More...
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CEO Issues Infection Challenge
February 13, 2009 8:39 AM by Glen McDaniel
Paul Levy, president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, in his recent blog "Running a Hospital," proudly published his hospital's nosocomial infection rate and boldly challenged other hospitals to do the same. He also threw down Read More...
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New Year's Resolutions
January 7, 2009 3:17 PM by Glen McDaniel
It is a brand new year and everyone is talking about their resolutions to be better, slimmer, healthier, more assertive, free of excessive baggage, better paid and all round closer to their vision of an ideal self. Looking back over some articles I had Read More...
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My Customer Service Nightmare
December 26, 2008 8:49 AM by Glen McDaniel
Why is it many people in healthcare still think it is the one service industry in which "customers" can be treated like trash? Recently I went to the doctor for some persistent and generalized itching. I don't have allergies and mentally eliminated everything Read More...
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CPOE Misses Errors
December 18, 2008 9:05 AM by Glen McDaniel
Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) is touted as a major improvement in patient safety, primarily as a result of the Institute of Medicine's 1999 report on medical errors. As a direct result of this initiative a consortium of companies called the Read More...
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Healthcare is Not Recession Proof
December 12, 2008 9:20 AM by Glen McDaniel
One of the things we have always taken as gospel is healthcare is pretty recession proof because people will always need healthcare services. My dad used to say "people will always need to eat and will always get sick" when describing the most stable Read More...
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Americans Use Internet for Health Information
September 24, 2008 8:48 AM by Glen McDaniel
According to a recent study by the Center for Studying Health System Change , Americans are increasingly using the Internet to get health information. In 2007, almost 58 percent of the U.S. population--or more than 122 million people--sought health information Read More...
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Replaced By Robots
September 22, 2008 10:32 AM by Glen McDaniel
A few years ago I visited a hospital in eastern Tennessee and was fascinated by a pharmacy robot named Alexander. Alexander would take medications from the pharmacy up to the floors. Alex, holding its precious cargo in a secure ATM-like body, would, using Read More...
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Never Events
July 14, 2008 10:19 AM by Glen McDaniel
New York Medicaid program has announced it will not pay for what it terms 14 " never events ." I recently wrote a blog discussing the fact that Medicare, a major healthcare payer, will no longer pay hospitals for the cost of care deriving from medical Read More...
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Universal HIV Screening
June 16, 2008 10:52 AM by Glen McDaniel
In September 2006, the CDC issued new guidelines recommending a wider screening of the general public for HIV. This aggressive guideline resulted from the finding that of new HIV diagnosis, almost a half (over 40 percent) went on to develop AIDS in about Read More...
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National Health Record
June 10, 2008 11:38 AM by Glen McDaniel
The Bush administration has said the U.S. should have a national electronic health record system (EHR) by the year 2014. This discussion regarding the need for electronic medical records goes back several years, but was really focused in this administration Read More...
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MRSA-A Deadly Threat on the Rise
May 21, 2008 12:03 PM by Glen McDaniel
The incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ( MRSA ) is increasing at an alarming rate. In fact, MRSA is now the No. 1 diagnosis in people presenting to U.S. emergency departments with skin and soft tissue infections. The infection is Read More...
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