December 15, 2023

hc1 offers a wide range of technology solutions that help labs of all shapes and sizes better leverage their data and improve operations. However, we recognize that each laboratory we serve has unique problems to solve and different ways to solve them.

hc1 prides itself on empowering clients to take a hands-on approach to customizing their solutions to fit their needs. Here are some of the ways that hc1 accomplishes that.

Personalized activation process

When a client purchases an hc1 solution they are partnered with an activation team dedicated to their organization. This group works alongside the client each step of the way to create a customized project plan that addresses the organization’s strategic objectives.

This plan can include simple items like customizing field and column labels or dashboard filters to more complex work like custom workflows and reports. Whatever the need, hc1 is dedicated to ensuring each client we bring on board is equipped with solutions that work for their organization and solve for their unique needs.

Continued enhancement through hc1 Service Select

Once a client is up and running, hc1 Service Select™ provides ongoing access to hc1 technical resources. Each new hc1 client receives a monthly allotment of hours as part of their agreement that can be used to expand or enhance their hc1 solutions at no additional charge. While other vendors typically charge an arm and a leg for custom work, Service Select offers clients hc1 experts on retainer to help maximize the value of their investment in hc1.

Clients have utilized Service Select to build custom workflows and rules, refine their analytics, create new reports and more. Clients with larger scale or more frequent projects can purchase additional Service Select hours if needed. Or, they can choose from hc1’s self-serve options.

Self-serve custom reporting with hc1 Data Toolkit

hc1 Data Toolkit™ enables organizations with staff experienced in data analytics to create and customize their own reporting and make changes as needed. This includes the ability to create custom data tables, design custom reports and data visualizations and report on hc1 data in third-party systems.

While other lab software vendors may offer self-serve tools, they’re often complex and require significant training. Our solution is easy to use and does not require expert programming knowledge. This empowers labs to self-serve if they wish rather than having to go through hc1 or other internal departments.

Take control of your lab operations with hc1

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to discover how our advanced analytics platform can help you leverage your data to drive results.

Request a demo today and see for yourself how hc1 can empower your team to optimize operations, engage with providers, and make informed testing and treatment decisions.

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Mackin Bannon is the product marketing manager for hc1. Before joining hc1 in 2022, Mackin held a variety of roles in marketing before settling on product marketing as a career focus. During the workday, he enjoys bringing stories to life in clear and creative ways. In his free time, he enjoys following his favorite sports teams, collecting vinyl records and exploring Indianapolis.

January 24, 2024

As we turn our sights to 2024, let’s look at what’s in store for labs this year. Spoiler: staffing shortages, AI, costs, outreach and data security make the list.

Staffing shortages will continue to plague healthcare

In July 2023, a coalition of laboratory organizations submitted a letter to the U.S. Congress requesting action to address the growing shortage of laboratory personnel. The shortage is due to a number of factors including high educational costs; lack of familiarity with laboratory medicine as a career option; declines in the number of training programs and students trained; high workload, stress, and burnout.

According to the letter, “Currently, most medical and public health laboratories suffer from significant personnel shortages, and many are operating at or near crisis mode. Staffing shortages now have the potential to undermine the ability of these laboratories to provide timely test results, which is imperative to both the public health and patient access to quality care.”

While the coalition urged Congress to include lab professionals in federal workforce programs they are currently ineligible to participate in, more and faster action will be needed to resolve the shortage by the end of 2024.

Other recommendations to resolve staffing shortages can be found in this May 2023 Medical Laboratory Observer article, including

Investing in longer-term solutions to acquire, develop, and retain talent.
Training existing staff working in non-technical roles with a desire for more options.
Reducing turnover through professional development programs.
Innovation.

One innovative way to reduce turnover due to burnout and reduce costs associated with short-term staffing solutions is to ensure lab staff scheduling is as efficient as possible. This can be done by predicting likely specimen volume in each department and then adjusting staffing levels accordingly. hc1 President Michael Braverman recently shared in MedCity News that “once time is lost, you can never get it back. Real-time insights enable laboratories to be more proactive, strategic, and responsive in managing their staffing needs and mitigating the impact of market forces affecting labor shortages. By using data to guide decision-making, labs can foster a stable and productive workforce, even in the face of dynamic market conditions.”

hc1 Workforce Optimization, which will become available to all laboratories in early 2024, uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) trained on combined testing and timekeeping data to recommend the most likely scheduling adjustments to create maximum efficiency. American Oncology Network (AON), a rapidly growing network of community-based oncology practices nationwide, will be the first to use the solution.

“Lab results have downstream implications for our providers and patients,” said Curtiss McNair, VP of laboratory services for AON, in a press release announcing hc1 and AON’s development partnership in June 2023. “This partnership enables us to develop better processes with real-time actionable insights into our data and imparts us with forward-thinking recommendations based on a detailed analysis to optimize staffing and expenses,” McNair added.

Laboratories will find more innovative ways to use AI

Through solutions like hc1 Workforce Optimization, AI will be used to create efficiencies and help offset staffing shortages. Other uses for AI in the lab include recognition of patterns in images, such as whole slide pathology imaging, cell-based imaging and breast cancer screening.

For laboratories to expand their use of AI, they will need to address data storage and complexity issues first. To facilitate the move toward AI/ML, Medical Laboratory Observer says that “if we consider a wider scope and complexity of data sources, this raises significant challenges from the technical issue of aggregating vast datasets obtained from diverse sources to the crucial human aspect of securing consent for personal data usage and safeguarding privacy.”

Overcoming these challenges is entirely possible and worth the effort, as Melody Boudreaux Nelson, DCLS, MS, MLS(ASCP)CM wrote in Medical Lab Management in March 2023, “For the medical laboratory, AI adoption offers a unique opportunity—a traceable “70%” (or greater) contribution to medical decisions. “

According to hc1 VP, Data Strategy, Chuck Girard, “Encouraging innovation within laboratories drives advancements in diagnostic techniques, technologies, and treatment methods.“

He said, “Labs must consider what they’ll need to do to be good partners to the health systems and providers that they serve as they pursue innovation. One way of doing that is to find technology partners that can help them manage and curate the lab’s data to better support clients’ needs. A good partner will not only offer best-in-class technology, but will pair it with deep subject matter expertise in the lab space. The partner will know what makes lab data challenging to work with and will offer technology solutions that overcome those challenges to optimize the lab data for innovative AI/ML-driven use cases.”

Healthcare leaders will invest more in cybersecurity

With the increasing volume of data being generated by healthcare, data security will be a continuing concern in 2024. Becker’s Health IT reporting on a recent Guidehouse analysis noted the top IT investment for 2024 is projected to be cybersecurity at 55%.

The planned investment increase in cybersecurity spending signals that healthcare systems are taking the need for more protection against threats like ransomware attacks and data breaches seriously. In August 2023, Medical Economics reported that 327 data breaches had been reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights so far, a more than 104% increase over the prior year. Data of more than 40 million individual patients was involved in cyberattacks by August 2023, a 60% increase year-over-year.

According to Chris Toth, director of compliance and risk management at hc1 Insights, “The security of all data is not something to be taken lightly and regardless if it is customer or patient data, it should be encrypted from cradle to grave as it takes the guesswork out of it. As cybersecurity threats continue to emerge, health IT leaders need to demonstrate that their organization takes not only data security and privacy but risk management seriously.”

hc1’s own investment in achieving HITRUST Risk-based, 2-year Certification demonstrates to our customers our commitment to the highest standards for data protection and information security. Watch this video to learn more about how and why hc1 chose to pursue HITRUST Certification.

Rising costs will continue to be a concern

Staffing shortages and inflation have certainly led to increases in labor and supply costs for laboratories and are unfortunately expected to continue.

Labor accounts for nearly half of health systems’ budgets and, according to the American Hospital Association, has increased more than 20 percent since 2019 and clinical labor costs are projected to grow 6 to 10 percent in 2023-24, about three to seven percentage points above the prevailing rate of inflation.

Meanwhile, lab equipment and IT software prices are projected to increase an average of 4.2% in 2023, while reagent, energy and labor costs are also expected to increase.10

In addition, labs are finding that more complex testing leads to the need for new instruments and continuing education for technicians. Molecular and other advanced testing types firmly established a foothold in laboratories in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that the value of PCR testing for infectious diseases has been widely recognized, laboratories are increasingly expected to expand the scope of their existing testing capabilities to include more analytes and observations. Demand for genetic testing has also increased. By November 2022, U.S. physicians could choose from 129,624 genetic tests to order. These new tests can be highly complex and require new techniques, expensive reagents and equipment, as well as advanced skill sets.

Optimizing use of resources will be one key way labs will be able to lower costs in 2024. Automation and AI will also have a role to play in lowering costs, as well as improving efficiency in billing so as to avoid unnecessary write-offs.

Improving laboratory stewardship will be key for value-based health systems. Leveraging usage data and automated decision support is proving to be highly successful in reducing unnecessary test orders and costs. The savings that can be realized through implementing an effective utilization program can more than make up for the expense of putting the appropriate resources and team in place to do so. Estimates project that healthcare systems could reduce costs up to $5 billion per year if they were just to eliminate redundant tests.

One large, midwestern health system utilized hc1 PrecisionDx Advisor to launch a test utilization program across 12 hospitals, driving measurable, positive change. With real-time visibility and a clear focus for initial improvement, this health system was able to quickly compare utilization trends by site location, physician and several other attributes in order to bring issues and opportunities to light. Substantial reductions in the utilization rates of individual analytes at the hospital level were achieved within 15 months. Ultimately, the system-wide impact of these efforts was a 5.6% reduction in lab tests per patient per day, which amounted to 147,000 fewer unnecessary tests per year and a conservative cost savings of $383,000.

Healthcare systems will increase focus on laboratory outreach

In an effort to offset costs, healthcare system laboratories will also look to expand their outreach programs. According to a report from the American Hospital Association, over half of hospitals ended 2022 operating at a financial loss, primarily due to hospital expense growth outpacing Medicare reimbursement by about 10 percent.

To combat these financial challenges, health systems are looking for ways to “launch new lines of business, add new services and find ways to differentiate,” according to Optum. Their survey of 150 healthcare leaders found that 49 percent consider growth one of the industry’s top challenges. “Hospital-based labs across the United States are forging ahead with their lab outreach services in ways that generate many benefits,” said Jane Hermansen, manager of outreach and network development at Mayo Clinic Laboratories, in an interview with Dark Daily.

Health system lab outreach programs can offer several benefits because of their community-based locations, available capacity and ability to often turn around test results faster than a lab outside the area.

Labs looking to grow their outreach programs will benefit from increasing focus on customer relationship management. Feedback on service quality, turnaround times, and any issues that may arise will help enhance the partnership over time.

A robust operations and customer relationship management (CRM) solution integrated with the Laboratory Information System (LIS) using a real-time HL7 interface can provide the actionable insights and data necessary to target and engage prospects and service existing outreach clients.

hc1 clients leveraging hc1 Operations Management™ and hc1 Performance Analytics™ have grown their outreach labs by as much as 90% in less than five years. Read this past hc1 blog post for five things contributing to their success.

Bonus Prediction: Lab industry growth in 2024 is inevitable

The global clinical laboratory service market size is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.2% from 2023 to 2030. Demand for diagnostic testing continues to rise, spurred by an increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and an aging population. Noncommunicable diseases are widespread, particularly in the United States, where nearly 60% of adults live with at least one chronic condition. Globally, the aging population is also growing and will likely need increased care and testing in the coming year. The share of the global population aged 65 and older is projected to rise from 10% in 2022 to 16% in 2050. At that point, the number of persons aged 65 years or over worldwide is expected to be more than twice the number of children under age 5 and about the same as the number under age 12.

As labs look to address the challenges presented by this increase in demand with fewer resources, hc1 is ready to help. We aren’t just delivering technology solutions for laboratories. We’re empowering healthcare to make people healthier. We get to know our clients and what they need and work with them to continuously innovate with lab data. Request a demo to discuss how we can work together to solve your lab’s challenges.

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Lauren VanDenBoom, vice president of marketing at hc1 Insights leads hc1’s marketing team in their efforts to advance awareness of hc1’s unique capabilities and vision. Lauren’s background includes more than 18 years of lab industry marketing and communications including key marketing roles in toxicology and women’s health-focused laboratories.

December 6, 2023

Laboratories and health systems track many aspects of their processes and business performance using data such as quality metrics, key performance indicators, test utilization, and individual performance. These measures are commonly presented in an analytic fashion, where data is aggregated over time and presented in a useful way (inclusive of comparison against historical performance). It’s fairly easy to look at a single entity and state “Yes, it’s going well” or “No, this requires intervention” when comparing it to a predetermined expectation or historical data. But how does an individual’s data or independent data point transition into larger perspectives like a department, specialty, hospital, or health system? And how do you know if your lab is the best in the business or has room for improvement? That’s where benchmarking comes into play.

What is Benchmarking?

Benchmarking has been a buzzword in laboratories and health care overall for a while. People hear it and nod enthusiastically, exclaiming, “YES! We want to do that, too!” As is typical with buzzwords, they often mean different things to different audiences, making it difficult to determine if a conversation around benchmarking as a construct is, at its core, the same among participants. For the purposes of this article, the definition of benchmarking will be to evaluate (something) against specific criteria that have been vetted, documented, and measured by an organization and the outcome(s) compared to an organization that is considered ‘the best in the business.’

Let’s clarify that definition a little further. ‘Vetted’ relates to the (something) that is being carefully examined, has value, and is specifically defined. “Documented” relates to why the benchmark of the (something) is important and how it was benchmarked. “Measured” refers to how the benchmark is assessed or valued in support of other entities comparing their data to it.

How do benchmarking and common operational metrics differ?

Benchmarking differs from common operational metrics in that quality metrics or key performance indicators are measured against a predefined lab or facility expectation (which could be an agreed-to standard or be defined by a service level/interdepartmental service agreement). These thresholds may vary across labs within a health network due to department structure (STAT lab in the ED vs. ED work sent to the main lab), facility type (critical access hospital vs. academic medical center), or testing services provided (performed in-house or sent to another facility in the health network). Whether the predefined expectation is “the best in the business” instead of “acceptable” is not considered.

Another difference between benchmarking and operational metrics is that operational metrics are simply a comparison to answer a straightforward question: are we meeting (or exceeding) an expectation or not? It has no insight into “what the best case scenario is and how we evolve to perform in the best way possible.” Done well, that is what benchmarking accomplishes.

Benchmarking takes the concept of operational metrics further, looking at the “best of the best” – where exceptional excellence exists in a comparable environment – moving into the territory of identifying areas of improvement, implementing a plan to support improvement, and continuously analyzing the outcomes throughout the process. (So it’s similar to developing quality indicators to measure process improvement, but often the scope is different and there may be no specific declaration of ‘complete’.)

Are quality metrics the same as benchmarking?

Quality metrics to analyze performance-related analytics are a simpler concept to benchmarking and systems, such as hc1 Performance Analytics and PrecisionDx (PDx) Advisor, support those needs very well. Analytics do not require the depth that benchmarking requires, but they may be a component of the benchmarking process. Understanding how your organization (lab, hospital, etc.) performs is a first step in preparing to benchmark data internally (within your own health network or system), and understanding your internal benchmarking will feed external benchmarking initiatives (anonymous comparison of your benchmarks to a valid, “the best of the best” center of excellence, along with similar organizations who are comparing to the same benchmark).

How can a lab get started with benchmarking?

With benchmarking being a continuous process of comparison of your organization against “the gold standard,” opportunities for improvement often require a committee-type structure to enable learning and adopting best practices learned from the “best of the best” organizations. Benchmarking may be a logical ‘next step’ from a lab stewardship perspective, where the lab already has an understanding of related processes and implemented stewardship-related changes to support best ordering and testing practices within their health system.

Click here to learn more about strengthening or starting a Lab Stewardship program.

November 30, 2023

The facts are…

Lab testing is the #1 utilized medical benefit.
The volume of tests being sent to labs is increasing, but adequate staff to perform the testing is scarce.

The result? Lab managers are being challenged to do more with less.

Lab leaders and managers nationwide know the challenge of being asked to improve performance, do more and meet goals with fewer resources and staff. Though a steady volume of tests entering clinical labs and health systems is necessary for patient care, not having the proper resources to avoid high levels of staff burnout and a lack of staff retention is creating a breaking point for lab managers. According to the 2023 Lab Trend Report, more than 14 billion clinical laboratory tests are performed each year, making it the number one utilized medical benefit. So, what’s the solution?

Labs are looking to their data for answers

hc1 recently presented a webinar on Doing More With Less – How labs can better utilize their data to drive superior outcomes, where Directors of High Value Care, Dawn Seymour and Adam Sajewich shared what some hc1 lab clients have done to overcome their biggest challenges. Through an interactive multiple-choice poll during the webinar, participants were asked what they are expected to do more of while having fewer resources in their labs. The top results were:

Increasing testing volume despite staffing shortages.
Improving test utilization without insight into order habits.

The key to resolving these challenges lies within something every lab has at its fingertips but can’t fully access the true value of––Data. The complexity of lab data prevents many labs from extracting its full value. The data is oriented around a specific observation during a single encounter and combined with qualitative clinical input. This makes viewing the data in a meaningful way in aggregate, across multiple encounters or over time very difficult. Leveraging this powerful resource to its fullest extent requires a dedicated and knowledgeable team to extract its insights.

Real-time visibility into test utilization helps reduce waste and improve care

Unnecessary medical care contributes billions of dollars annually to healthcare spending in the United States. A critical look at lab ordering across a network can potentially garner millions of dollars in hard cost savings. hc1 Test Utilization™ helps hospital labs reduce unnecessary low-value and high-cost tests to improve patient care and reduce costs. hc1 Test Utilization evaluates orders in real-time and accounts for diagnosis, location, specialty medications, demographics and more.

A case study from a 12-hospital health system showing how they achieved positive, measurable change through real-time visibility, data-backed insights and actionable metrics using hc1 Test Utilization was shared during our Doing More with Less webinar. System-wide, they achieved a 5.6% reduction in lab tests per patient per day, which amounted to 147k fewer unnecessary tests per year and a conservative cost savings of $383k per year with just ten clinical guidelines set within the solution. This client success story is one we are very proud of.

Real-time insights fuel outreach growth and overcome disconnected, disparate systems

Other areas of concern voiced by lab leaders were addressed during the webinar, such as outreach growth and the struggle labs experience because their data and processes are scattered across various disparate systems that are disconnected and unable to communicate with one another. “Because I’m 99% certain that all of us don’t fully understand the capabilities of lab data because of the source system limitations, we’ve architected hc1 solutions from the ground up for laboratories with design first principles that contemplate the multi-dimensional nature of lab to remove these limitations,” Sajewich said, “Not only are we able to provide an intuitive experience, but we can automate workflows and reporting from the platform. You can set thresholds to receive alerts if turnaround times spike above your expectations or you’ve been hit with a volume spike and need to adjust staffing levels to accommodate. We show you where to focus based on what we see within the data your lab generates.”

AI-generated recommendations help to optimize staffing levels to reduce burnout proactively, lower labor costs and improve lab operations

hc1 Workforce Optimization is the most recent addition to the hc1 portfolio and was highlighted during the webinar. Workforce Optimization addresses one of the most significant issues labs face today: adequate staffing. With 67% of labs nationwide experiencing employee understaffing, burnout and turnover are among the most prevalent consequences of consistent understaffing. This can also lead to missed benchmarks and increased turnaround times, negatively impacting patient outcomes.

Workforce Optimization combines lab volume and timekeeping data in a single platform and then utilizes machine learning and AI to create a data-driven strategy that provides actionable recommendations with high-level visibility on where to proactively optimize staffing levels by location, lab department and time of day. All of this helps retain employees, reduce costs and elevate patient care.

Built to help labs succeed

We’re working to close the gap between data and taking action.

hc1 has been helping IDNs, academic medical centers and the largest commercial labs in the world overcome their top challenges for over a decade. Are you ready to learn how to elevate your lab, resolve your staffing challenges, and attain your goals?

To learn more about the aforementioned info and the tangible next steps you can take to capitalize on your data, watch the webinar Doing More With Less on-demand by clicking here and be empowered to conquer your lab’s needs.

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Lorri Markum is the marketing manager for hc1 Insights and has over two decades of corporate and nonprofit marketing leadership experience. Lorri specializes in B2B marketing and SEO optimization. Before joining hc1, she was the marketing manager for a nonprofit healthcare organization serving 40 counties throughout Indiana.

November 27, 2023

Healthcare used to operate almost exclusively on a fee-for-service basis, meaning each service performed was a line item billed separately and regardless of the outcome. That era is passing. Increasingly, high value care is the new driving force. This trend toward a team-provided and patient-centered healthcare model impacts both physical and financial outcomes.

November 10, 2023

Health system laboratories are entering a pivotal season as they move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic and take on the challenges that have been left in its wake. From critical staffing shortages to extraordinary financial pressures to rapidly changing technology, labs are being tasked with increasing volume, generating more revenue and adapting to new technology despite fewer staffing, supply and financial resources.

Here are the top three challenges health system labs are facing and how hc1 can help overcome them.

1. Lack of Staffing

Lack of staffing is one of the biggest challenges health system labs face. The United States faces a critical shortage of laboratory professionals of around 20-25,000 individuals, roughly one medical laboratory scientist per 1,000 people. Further, a recent survey of lab professionals uncovered that 73 percent of laboratories are understaffed.

As lab professionals are being asked to do more with less, there are several risks. When lab departments are understaffed, it can lead to missed benchmarks and increased turnaround time. Additionally, understaffing can lead to burnout and the loss of even more staff – 85.3 percent of respondents to a survey by the American Society for Clinical Pathology reported having felt burnout as a laboratory professional.

To fill in the gaps, labs are left to pay overtime hours, hire contract staff or send testing out to reference labs. All of these are costly solutions that negatively impact the lab’s bottom line, leading to the next challenge health system labs are facing…

2. Growing Revenue Through Outreach

Hospitals and health systems are facing extraordinary financial pressures. According to a report from the American Hospital Association, over half of hospitals ended 2022 operating at a financial loss, primarily due to hospital expense growth outpacing Medicare reimbursement by about 10 percent.

To combat these financial challenges, health systems are looking for ways to “launch new lines of business, add new services and find ways to differentiate,” as stated by Optum in a recent report. Their survey of 150 healthcare leaders found that 49 percent consider growth one of the industry’s top challenges.

Within the lab, this often means starting or growing outreach programs to generate additional revenue for the health system. “Hospital-based labs across the United States are forging ahead with their lab outreach services in ways that generate many benefits,” said Jane Hermansen, manager of outreach and network development at Mayo Clinic Laboratories, in an interview with Dark Daily.

Yet, many labs run their outreach programs out of LIS or Excel, which are not designed for tracking sales activity and managing customer service cases like a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Meanwhile, others who are new to the outreach business may not have any systems or processes in place to ensure efficient workflows, quality service and accurate data. On the topic of data…

3. Becoming More Data-Driven

Healthcare organizations of all types – including laboratories – are beginning to understand better the importance of data in improving operations, optimizing spend and making better business decisions. The Optum survey referenced above found that data and analytics are the top investment priority for healthcare leaders, with nearly 90 percent of respondents considering data and analytics maturity as an area of importance.

In the lab, data analytics are becoming more prevalent. According to Medical Laboratory Observer’s State of the Industry: Lab Data Analytics, 49 percent of lab professionals said they are utilizing data analytics for some aspects of their operations and planning, up from 42 percent in 2022. These labs are using data to monitor turnaround time, analyze cost per test, measure staff productivity, uncover unnecessary testing and more

However, becoming more data-driven is easier said than done. According to the Medical Laboratory Observer report, only 31 percent of labs have access to real-time data in their analytics tools. Additionally, 51 percent of respondents said interoperability and data integration issues with LISs or EHRs are a stumbling block to implementing electronic processes at their labs.

When considering the staffing shortages and financial pressures previously mentioned, health system labs can’t afford to waste time navigating between disconnected systems and manually manipulating data to get the reports and insights they need.

hc1 can Help Your Health System Lab Overcome Challenges

For over a decade, hc1 has been helping the nation’s leading laboratories tackle their toughest challenges. Our secure, HIPAA-compliant, cloud-based solutions reveal real-time insights and signals with the lab’s own data, empowering lab leaders to optimize operations, engage with providers and inform testing and treatment decisions.

Labs are using the following hc1 solutions today to solve the abovementioned challenges.

Staffing: hc1 Workforce Optimization™ helps lab leaders proactively optimize staffing levels by predicting demand for lab services across the organization and suggesting specific, department-level resource adjustments.

Outreach: hc1 Operations Management™ brings sales, service and operations workflows onto a single platform to enable labs to act on sales opportunities, quickly resolve issues and ensure customers are satisfied.

Data and Analytics: hc1 Performance Analytics™ connects disparate lab data sources, such as LIS, billing and EHR, to deliver actionable, real-time insights via dashboards and reports designed specifically for the lab.

Are you ready to tackle the top three challenges your health system lab faces? Let hc1 help you overcome these hurdles and transform your lab’s performance.

Take control of your lab’s future and reach new heights! Request a demo to learn more about how hc1 can help you optimize staff scheduling, grow outreach and make data-driven decisions.

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Mackin Bannon is the product marketing manager for hc1. Mackin held various roles covering nearly every marketing area before settling on product marketing as a focus and joining hc1 in 2022. During the workday, he enjoys bringing stories to life in clear and creative ways. In his free time, he enjoys following his favorite sports teams, collecting vinyl records and exploring Indianapolis.

October 23, 2023

Lab data is a powerful yet untapped resource, but many labs don’t have the time or the tools to extract the true value of their data. Yet, there are endless possibilities available in the data your lab produces and you can easily access it when you have the right tools.

Watch this on-demand, 30-minute webinar to learn how hc1 has been helping labs leverage their data to overcome the challenges that stand in the way of meeting their goals. hc1 Directors of High Value Care, Dawn Seymour and Adam Sajewich, present “Doing More With Less: How labs can better utilize their data to drive superior outcomes.”

We encourage all lab decision-makers to watch the webinar here and plan to learn how your lab can achieve superior outcomes with your lab’s data.

We asked Dawn and Adam to share what viewers can expect by watching this webinar.

Dawn Seymour Adam Sajewich
Director of High Value Care, hc1 Director of High Value Care, hc1

Why is this webinar relevant?

Dawn: Labs are being asked to do much more with fewer and fewer resources while producing the expected results timely. It’s amazing how it can affect your business when you have access to the data you need. Data helps uncover opportunities for improvement. However, managing lab data is monumentally difficult without the right experience and necessary resources. We show that resources are available and labs are using these resources and seeing impressive results.

Adam: Lab and IT professionals are stretched thin. Labs probably already know what they want and need to do, but they’re blocked because they don’t have the time, tools or resources to achieve their goals. This results in staff burnout and sometimes a decrease in customer service quality. Lab data is one of the most valuable assets the laboratory has at its disposal and we want to show labs how utilizing that data can resolve many of their pain points.

What viewers can expect to learn?

Dawn: We share how our clients tackle issues such as laboratory staffing, test utilization, real-time analytics, third-party sendout tests, root cause analysis, lab outreach, client retention and workflow automation.

Adam: We provide specific examples of ways hc1 clients have optimized their operations, lowered costs and improved patient outcomes. We also preview our upcoming solution to help labs proactively optimize staffing levels through AI-powered insights.

Who should watch this webinar?

Dawn: This webinar will benefit anyone responsible for lab operations (lab managers, lab directors) who is short on staff, budget and time. If you think about the time you spend throughout the day manipulating, pulling or requesting data, you’re not operating at full efficiency.

Adam: Lab executives who are charged with developing strategies to increase profitability or decrease spending, all while improving operations, will benefit from this webinar. We want to help these folks unlock real-time lab insights to help optimize lab spend and drive both customer and employee retention.

Are you ready to start a conversation? If you have additional questions, please get in touch with us at info@hc1.com.

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Ginger Hart has served as the Events Manager at hc1 since 2021. Before joining hc1, Ginger worked in event management in the pharma industry. Before entering healthcare, Ginger was an Events Manager at Google HQ in Silicon Valley, CA, for 11 years. She currently lives in Zionville, Indiana.

October 18, 2023

Sometimes, it requires a proverbial village to fully identify the trust and integrity an organization has always had in place and upheld. To further promote that dedication to security to hc1® current and potential clients, hc1 sought to attain the highest level of trust and assurance awareness that customers come to count on and have unwavering confidence in.

A village of hc1 team members worked tirelessly for over a year to ensure the hc1 Platform®, along with the hc1 corporate headquarters located in Indianapolis, secured the HITRUST Risk-based, 2-year (r2) certification for information security. This certification allows hc1 to further demonstrate to labs and health systems that it remains at the forefront of industry best practices for information risk management and compliance.

Why HITRUST?

The Health Information Trust Alliance Common Security Framework (HITRUST CSF®) serves to unify security controls based on aspects of US federal law (such as HIPAA and HITECH), certain state-specific laws, and other industry-standard compliance frameworks into a single comprehensive set of baseline security and privacy controls, built specifically for healthcare needs.

Instead of pursuing lesser certifications, hc1 decided to go straight to the highest level by setting sites on achieving the HITRUST Risk-based, 2-year (r2) certification. “HITRUST is widely regarded as the gold standard for information protection assurances, enabling us to validate how seriously we are about delivering healthcare ethically and securely to our current and future customers,” said Shelly Simeone, SVP of legal and chief compliance officer at hc1. “We also selected the HITRUST certification because it leverages numerous security and privacy-related regulations, standards and frameworks–including NIST and HIPAA for certification,” Simeone emphasized.

Watch the video below for the complete interview.

“HITRUST is a rigorous program that goes beyond other third-party certifications and has specific controls that cover numerous areas within information security, such as risk management, data loss prevention and access to control, to name just a few. An actual third-party, HITRUST-approved assessor completes the review on behalf of the organization. In addition, there is also a meticulous policy and procedures and testing process assuring that all proper controls are in place,” said Simeone.

hc1 Director of Compliance and Risk Management, Chris Toth, added, “hc1 has 19 different domains that are tested and reviewed by HITRUST and all 19 of those domains are approved.”

hc1 was Built Specifically for Healthcare

Both the hc1 Platform® and the hc1 organization have the advantage of being built from the ground up for healthcare. Nationwide, clinical laboratories and health systems trust hc1 with their data. This dedication to healthcare means that protecting the integrity of customers’ sensitive information has always been an hc1 priority.

System security is critical because of the data collection, data content serving and reporting activities conducted in the hc1 Platform. In addition, cloud-based delivery often raises concerns for information security. The HITRUST-certified hc1 Platform’s architecture and design follow industry-standard best practices for security design to address these concerns.

hc1 has been designed for and runs completely in AWS on HIPAA-compliant systems and is covered by its Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with AWS. The hc1 solution leverages all the available security features of AWS and is built to current best practices using a three-tier architecture.

Trust and Assurance

hc1’s Amazon Web Services (AWS)-based cloud platform allows laboratories, healthcare providers, acute care centers, and other healthcare organizations to focus on improving their business rather than handling security and IT issues, providing customers with secure, scalable, reliable data access and outstanding performance.

The safety of customer data is paramount for the entire company, and hc1’s meticulous security processes and tools demonstrate commitment to protecting this data. hc1 proactively protects customer data and provides the best possible security through the use of stringent procedures.

Download this whitepaper to learn more about hc1’s HITRUST commitment.

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October 16, 2023

In over a decade of working with labs, hc1 has developed the technology and expertise to make extracting insights from lab data quick and easy. The hc1 Lab Insights Platform™, which includes a suite of analytics and operations solutions, connects lab and healthcare data sources to uncover actionable signals that inform decisions. By creating a foundation of accurate and real-time insights, we open a world of opportunity for labs to optimize operations, reduce costs and improve care.

However, labs often ask us why they should partner with hc1 when they already have access to analytics and reports in their LIS.

While it is true that many LIS vendors also offer analytics capabilities, these tools are limited in nature and fail to provide the actionable insights lab leaders need to navigate today’s business challenges. hc1 offers a deeper level of analysis and a more robust set of tools to answer your biggest questions and streamline your most manual workflows.

hc1 vs. LIS: An Analogy

Think of your LIS as your primary care physician (PCP). Like a great PCP helps a person address the majority of their health questions and issues, your LIS helps you run the majority of your day-to-day operations. But when you have a need that warrants a specialist, your PCP works within their care network to connect you to the right expert.

Think of hc1 as one of those specialists – your cardiologist, for example. Just like the heart is the engine for the body, data insights are the engine for a laboratory. hc1’s solutions connect to your other internal systems, sitting at the center of your organization to ensure your operations are running efficiently and you have the data you need to make informed decisions.

Why Your LIS Isn’t Enough

Your LIS may offer reporting capabilities, but chances are they aren’t providing you with the insights you need. They may be built on an outdated, complex user interface that is difficult to use. They may not integrate well with your other systems, preventing you from analyzing external data and gaining a holistic view of your operations. Unless you pay the vendor some astronomical project fee, they may not allow for customization or advanced data analysis.

Just like your PCP isn’t a cardiology expert, your LIS vendor isn’t an analytics expert. You wouldn’t let your PCP perform open heart surgery, so why would you depend on your LIS vendor to be the sole provider of your most important business insights?

The Vendor with Analytics AND Laboratory Expertise

If you have a major business issue to address, hc1 can help diagnose it and solve it better than any other vendor out there. Not only do we have over a decade of experience providing laboratories with technology solutions created to serve their needs, but we also have a wealth of lab expertise across all areas of our company. From product development to sales and marketing to our advisory team, hc1 has numerous individuals with laboratory experience, ensuring we’re always focused on solving labs’ biggest problems.

Ready to unlock the power of your lab data? Request a demo today and learn how hc1 works together with your LIS to help you deliver superior outcomes.

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Mackin Bannon is the product marketing manager for hc1. Before joining hc1 in 2022, Mackin held various marketing roles before settling on product marketing as a focus. During the workday, he enjoys bringing stories to life in clear and creative ways. In his free time, he enjoys following his favorite sports teams, collecting vinyl records and exploring Indianapolis.

October 26, 2023

In today’s fast-paced world, we have become used to multitasking in our personal and professional lives. Thanks to mobile devices and global networks, we are always connected to work, family, friends, news, and society. However, this constant connection can make it difficult to relax.

Professionally, we often take on so much that we fail to recognize the extent of our burdens and how they may negatively impact our productivity. Like the iconic I Love Lucy episode in the candy factory, the process initially seems smooth and easy until it’s not.

As an industry leader in identifying real-time insights and risk signals from complex laboratory data and working closely with labs nationwide of all sizes, hc1 has encountered countless stories from lab leaders voicing their top issues regarding their lab operations. Inadequate staffing is at the top of their list.

Even before the COVID pandemic, hospitals and clinical labs struggled to find sufficient staffing for their daily needs. Since the pandemic, the ability to juggle staffing demands has been insurmountable. Yet leaders have forged ahead, making do with what they have, overworking themselves and their staff out of necessity. Burnout and lack of retention have become residual effects of not having enough hands on deck to fulfill the high demands and needs, causing even more problems.

Leaders have become even more focused on getting the immediate tasks completed, pushing harder, demanding more and taking on more themselves. As a result, they have begun dropping the proverbial “candy.” The quality of their productivity has waned and expenses have increased as they unconsciously settle for just getting things out the door, checked off the list, etc., resulting in true capabilities being sacrificed. Playing catch-up is an endless cycle when no resolutions are available to address the root problem.

Help for Overwhelmed Lab Managers

hc1 took this issue of lab understaffing to heart and developed a solution that identifies under-optimized staff scheduling and offers proactive recommendations to resolve problems before they happen.

hc1 Workforce Optimization™ helps eliminate the overwhelming aspect of lab management, allowing lab leaders to feel less overwhelmed by predicting demand for lab services across the organization and suggesting specific, department-level resource adjustments. Through this optimization, labs can minimize sendout and short-term staffing costs, decrease the staff turnover and burnout caused by understaffing and reduce TaT to improve patient outcomes.

Feeling overwhelmed may never be completely removed from the professional lives of healthcare and lab leaders, but having the right tools to project future needs can allow a smoother journey and higher quality outcomes for all.

Feeling overwhelmed as a lab manager? You don’t have to go it alone

Watch our on-demand, 30-minute webinar Doing More With Less and learn how hc1 can help you successfully become a more optimized lab despite fewer available resources.