Can supporting the lab in integrating the hospital’s service area from a clinical lab diagnostics perspective significantly help meet current institutional financial challenges and prepare for the future? The answer is an emphatic yes! Done correctly, it enables improved patient care and makes the entire health system more efficient, producing millions of dollars per year in incremental health system operating margin.So how can hospitals and health systems improve the patient-provider laboratory service experience? In my years of working with leading health systems and designing industry-leading laboratory services, the items that are key to achieving this enhanced patient-provider experience concern:▶︎ Creating an awareness regarding the opportunities that exist when this underutilized resource, with its sunken costs, is more fully leveraged.▶︎ Establishing enhanced institutional support and governance.▶︎ Developing a clear plan that captures the opportunities, needed resources, and institutional benefits with the associated ROI to confirm alignment.▶︎ Driving plan execution in an agile manner and making data-driven adjustments as plan assumptions are tested.I have found that innovation coupled with an agile data-driven healthcare strategy is powerful medicine for helping health systems solve significant problems and manage the needed change to maximize efficiency, service excellence, growth, and profitability.Let's talk if you want to leverage the best business practices for developing, implementing, managing, and governing new strategic clinical laboratory initiatives designed for growth and profitability.