How to Turn Your Mid-Sized Medical Laboratory into a Thriving Large-Scale Operation

It didn’t happen overnight, but thanks to your business acumen and a strong support team, your start-up anatomic pathology practice or reference laboratory has matured and blossomed into a successful business with a solid client base and an equally solid reputation.

Congratulations are in order, as this was no easy feat, especially when you consider that your lab was successfully able to manage the challenges associated with a once-in-a-lifetime event like the Covid pandemic. 

The fact that you’re here today is a result of careful planning, timely decisions, and effective execution of those plans. 

Going from start-up to established had its own special set of challenges, and if the goal is to turn this mid-sized medical laboratory into a thriving large-scale operation, there will be new barriers and threats to overcome. With that in mind, here are a few suggestions to help facilitate the desired growth and expansion of your laboratory.

Avoid Paralysis by Laboratory Analysis 

As a start-up with a much smaller staff, it’s likely that management decisions were made after gathering input from all of your colleagues. In fact, the engagement of all stakeholders who will be affected by a planned change (while the process is happening) is a common and accepted practice in change management doctrine. 

But what if this collective engagement fails to reach a consensus and creates decision-making paralysis? What then?

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review (Leading a Midsize Business Through Change) touched on this topic, with the author, Ron Ashkenas, suggesting that “the real issue is not whether to get a large number of people involved or not - but rather how to get them involved.”

In his article, Ashkenas, a Partner Emeritus at Schaffer Consulting and co-author of the Harvard Business Review Leader’s Handbook argues that it’s human nature to view change through a “will this be good or bad for me and my team” lens, and because of this, decision-making and reaching a conclusion on change becomes more difficult as more people get involved. 

In Ashkenas’ view, there’s a big difference between offering an opinion and being a decision-maker, and that’s where mid-sized companies can get lost. It’s his belief that decisions that affect the direction of the company should be done by a smaller team, namely the company’s CEO and his or her trusted executives. Then, once a decision has been made, a larger group can work together to communicate and implement that decision. 

Guiding Principles for Those on the Verge of Major Change 

Ashkenas closed his article by providing two guiding principles for mid-sized companies that have a  culture of engagement:

• Be clear about whether you’re engaging people for the purpose of providing input or for making a decision.  

• Have a dedicated leader who will continue to be deeply engaged throughout the process.

Taking the Ashkenas Principles and Applying Them to the Medical Lab Industry 

Now let’s pivot back to the topic at hand, and that’s how to turn your successful mid-sized medical laboratory into a large-scale operation that dominates the marketplace. With nearly two decades of experience in this space, we at LigoLab on many occasions have worked with labs just like yours, successful small businesses on the verge of being great providing that they make the right decisions going forward. Based on our experiences and best practices, we recommend the Ashkenas approach to decision-making, and that is to effectively communicate the plan to all stakeholders at every stage, but leave the mission-critical decisions up to a small and experienced leadership team.

We’ve Been There Before 

As founders of LigoLab, both Edward Kharatian and I can relate to the situation that you’re currently in. Prior to founding our company in 2006, we worked together at Healthline Clinical Laboratories. Back then, Edward was the CIO and I ran the lab’s IT department. We leveraged the technology available to grow the lab and became the largest privately held lab in California.

Technology was a huge enabler, but as we grew we realized that these piecemealed solutions resulted in multiple software vendors, and as a business, we went from being innovative to being in constant maintenance mode.

The lessons we learned helped launch our company with a shared vision of the advantages that come with integrated and unified LIS software (click here to learn how the company was founded).

Stop Building a Laboratory Monster

Over our many years of service, we’ve come to recognize a few common trends that need to be properly addressed now if your lab is to grow efficiently and achieve its goals.  

Is your lab using multiple and disparate laboratory software systems to complete clinical laboratory workflows? If so, how many software systems are in place currently? Do these systems work well together or create data silos? What happens if something goes wrong and multiple software vendors refuse to take the blame for the issue at hand? Are you using paper or Excel to log QA/QC items?

We see this all the time, prospective laboratory partners who’ve outgrown their original laboratory information systems (LIS) and created a laboratory monster by piecing together multiple systems and workarounds to get the job done. The hard truth is that intra-system interfaces are costly, hard to maintain, and more often than not result in inconsistent data. This is why we recommend a comprehensive all-in-one pathology software like LigoLab Informatics Platform that unites all departments and roles and represents “one source of truth.”

The LigoLab platform is designed to streamline laboratory processes and enhance operational efficiency. Without this, your lab will be unable to break through growth barriers and quickly scale the business. Our pathology lab software solution includes over a dozen embedded modules, all of which are integral to a laboratory’s success. The list includes an Integration Engine, Outreach, Document Scanning, Sendout Management, Customer Service Management, Business Intelligence, Rules and Automation, and more. All these modules work in tandem to provide a holistic all-in-one LIS software solution tailored to meet the needs of multifaceted and modern anatomic pathology practices and clinical laboratories.

Know The Difference Between Laboratory Information System Vendors and Laboratory Informatics Partners 

Lastly, a word of caution as you and your leadership team start researching the attributes of laboratory information systems and LIS software vendors. There are legacy LIS systems backed by large advertising budgets and flashy presentations that will first demand a large upfront capital investment for the software license, and then hit you with hidden fees for adding seats and modules as your business scales. With this model, the legacy vendor gets paid upfront and is thereby much less interested in hearing what you and your colleagues have to say about the LIS software and how it can be enhanced and improved to help your business grow.

The LigoLab approach is much different. The cost of our license is directly aligned with your lab’s testing volume and long-term goals. No large upfront capital is required to use the software. This sets your lab up for immediate success, as does the fact that your business won’t be penalized with hidden fees for growing. That’s because the license includes the entire LIS solution, with no hidden costs for adding modules and seats. 

This partnership approach is also evident when it comes to research and development. We firmly believe in the power of innovation and in constantly enhancing our platform’s offerings, thus ensuring that our partner laboratories are equipped to handle both current demands and future changes in an industry that continues to evolve.

At LigoLab, we understand this mission-critical decision and can offer you and your team the playbook and partnership for long-term success. 

To learn more, we invite you to take a closer look at how we support our lab partners from implementation to go-live and beyond, and we recommend a 15-minute discovery call with one of our talented product specialists.